Incredible work of health care professionals will save thousands of patients and pull New York through this Covid-19 pandemic.
Michael Dowling Irish-born president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York State with 23 hospitals, has stated that the public health system in New York State and thousands of ill patients will survive the worst of the coronavirus attack thanks to the incredible work of health care professionals.
Appearing on CBS “Face the Nation” Limerick-born Dowling stated: “What's amazing here is that at times of crisis like this, people's character reveals itself. You see extraordinary work being done by not just doctors and nurses. You see hospitals being retrofitted to put beds where beds never before existed. You see sadness among employees when things don't go well, but you see joy and celebration when there are successes. We are seeing in many ways the best of humanity.
“I am out in the... meeting with the physicians and meeting with the staff on the front lines. And I can tell you that we should sit back and say how fortunate we are to have people with that commitment, that compassion, that courage to do what it is they're doing each and every day to protect the rest of us. We are very lucky for the health care systems that we have.
“We are very, very, very fortunate. And we should never forget about it. And so when this is all over, and when you can get close to people, eventually, with social distan… distancing is over with... for everybody out there, if you see a healthcare worker, especially a nurse or a doctor that have been on the front lines please give them a hug. Don't do it today. Do it later because these are… special, special, special people.,
He told host Margaret Brennan “ staffing is always an issue because the severity of the issue... we've been in this now for a couple of weeks, and the intensive care staff, the physicians on the front lines, we have… we have to use staff over and over. We have to put staff on overtime.
“We are getting staff in from around the United States. We're getting staff from upstate New York. So finding the capacity is one thing. You can create the beds. That's the easiest part because you can create an ICU bed or a bed pretty much any place. And we have plenty of beds.
“The issue then becomes each and every day making sure that you have the right staff with the right skill levels to make sure that you can take care of the patients in the optimum way that you would want to take care of them. So, yes, staff is always a... an issue, but we are... we are well prepared at the moment. And we will be well prepared no matter when that apex comes.
He denied a policy was in place to make life and death calls on who got ventilators at his hospitals.
“We are not at that point at all. We have sufficient ventilators for the foreseeable future, and we're obviously getting more supply. And Governor Cuomo has been a major, major quarterback in that effort. The policy that you reference is a draft policy. It is something that we like to prepare for the inevitability. In case that we ever have to do something in the future, you have to have a policy prepared well in advance.
“I don't think we will ever get to that point, but it would be foolish to wait until you have a disaster and then try to develop the policy...
“He stated that the extraordinary success rate of saving lives had not been fully appreciated.
“I'd just like to mention here, because I think the public sometimes gets, can get not always the right information. We've had lots of people discharged from the hospital successfully after they have been treated, many after they have been on a ventilator.
“In our system alone, about three hundred people each and every day after successful treatment for the COVID virus actually go home. That is success. That's what we've got to also be talking about and thinking about and celebrating. That's the good news. And I think good news is what everybody needs right now.
Asked about protective equipment for staff he stated: “Yes. We have enough protective equipment.”
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