FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 9, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19
сoronavirus
An inside look at Elmhurst Hospital as told by
the director of the emergency department
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@WNS
Since the end of last month, Elmhurst
Hospital has been the center of the
COVID-19 crisis in Queens, admitting
about 200 patients who tested positive for
the virus as of March 30.
Elmhurst’s Emergency Department
Director, Dr. Stuart Kessler, described the
experience as “challenging” and added
that “no hospital in the country was prepared”
Dr. Stuart Kessler
A hospital worker checks people waiting in line to be tested for coronavirus
outside Elmhurst Hospital on April 2.
to deal with a pandemic of these
proportions.
Kessler praised the hospital and its
healthcare staff , including attending physicians,
residents, mid-level practitioners
and nurses and said in the past, they have
trained for “disaster and mass casualties.”
“It’s a totally diff erent experience. I’ve
been doing emergency medicine for more
than 20 years and none of us could have
imagined what we’re seeing,” said Kessler.
“I still sometimes have a hard time getting
my head around the fact of what we’re
seeing today. It’s something very diff erent
than anything we’ve ever thought would
happen or could happen.”
Making adjustments
According to Kessler, the early parts of
March brought “huge volumes of patients
that we never expected to see.” Th e doctor
estimated that during that time, Elmhurst
admitted more than double the patients
that would come on any other given day.
“It started with a few patients that
I don’t think anyone would recognize
would likely turn out to be patients infected
with coronavirus. We then gradually
saw a huge increase in our volume of
patients that were coming to the emergency
department,” he said.
Th e dramatic increase in patients
required the staff at Elmhurst to make
changes in the way they staff ed their
employees and in treating patients diagnosed
with the virus.
“We had to fi gure out who of all those
patients was really sick and who needed
the most intense care or who could get
a medical screening exam, be given good
discharge instructions and told that
they could go home fairly rapidly
aft er a thorough evaluation,”
Kessler said.
According to Kessler, the
issue wasn’t the amount of
patients admitted to the hospital
but rather their acuity,
or severity of their illness.
Th e doctor said that over the
past few weeks, Elmhurst
saw an increase in
those patients who
became seriously
ill from COVID-
19.
“Now, it wasn’t so much that there was a
huge volume of patients walking in, there
was just a large number of really sick
patients. We’ve intubated more patients in
two or three days than we would in two or
three months,” Kessler said.
To off er an alternative to going inside
the hospital for testing, Elmhurst set up
an outdoor tent next to the emergency
department.
“Some people were just coming to the
emergency department because they
wanted to get tested. So we were able to
give them an option that didn’t require
them to come to the emergency department,
they had the option, if they chose,
to get tested,” said Kessler.
A need for more supplies
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak,
Kessler said that Elmhurst had enough
resources, including ventilators, for “any
day of the week.”
“But when people began to realize
what the need was, it was something
that was sort of extraordinary. It required
us to work really hard to try and get
the resources we needed,” Kessler said.
“So, I’m sure there was some concern on
everybody’s part about how many patients
are going to come in tomorrow that need
to be intubated and put on vents and can
we get enough vents to manage all the
patients that need them.”
What he and other hospital staff try to
do is to manage their needs on a daily
basis and determine if they’ll have enough
resources to last for the next two to fi ve
days and beyond that.
“We’ve managed to keep up and that’s
great. So the fear is just, will we be able to
keep up today and will we have enough
for tomorrow,” he said. “We’re always concerned
and we’re always looking to get
more because we know if we have enough
today, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll
have enough tomorrow. We always have
to be looking to get more tomorrow and
more the next day and more the next day.”
Fortunately, the doctor said that leadership,
including Vice President of NYC
Health + Hospitals Israel Rocha Jr., hospital
administrators and the government
have provided “great support” in providing
enough supplies for Elmhurst’s needs.
So far, Kessler said that they have not
run out of supplies and added that a lot of
people have “stepped up” to donate PPE
to the hospital.
“I think in hospitals that haven’t experienced
this yet, they’re gonna go through
the same kind of learning experience that
we have as to what’s the extent of PPE,
how should you wear it, how much do you
need, how oft en do you need to change it.
Th ose are all things we’re learning as we
go,” said Kessler.
Healthcare heroes
In terms of handling a health situation
that no one could have prepared for, Kessler
said that the whole hospital and the emergency
department has “done a great job,”
volunteering for extra shift s, coming in
when they are not scheduled to work and
going above and beyond their normal roles.
“Th ey’ve stepped up in amazing ways,
they’re doing things that they’ve never
imagined they would have to do. In our
department and throughout the hospital
but everybody in the ED has just been
more than I could have ever asked for,”
said Kessler. “Th ere’s been no one that’s
said no to any request or requirements,
they’ve all in fact volunteered to do more.
Th ey’ve all spent time learning how to
best treat these patients.
“Everybody in my department knows
how to work a vent, they know the different
types of vents and they know
how to use them in a very short period
of time,” Kessler continued. “We have a
really strong residency program and our
nurses and everybody have stepped up
in exceptional ways.”
Photos by REUTERS/Stefan Jeremiah
People wait in line to be tested for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while wearing protective gear
outside Elmhurst Hospital Center on March 25, 2020.
While the Elmhurst Hospital staff monitors the
use of ventilators and other vital resources
carefully, they are “always looking to get more
because we know if we have enough today, that
doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll have enough
tomorrow.”
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