New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals plans to triple its intensive care unit capacity by May to address the surge in COVID-19 patients.
The city's public health system, which announced the news April 3, said it aims to create nearly 762 additional ICU beds and add nearly 2,500 medical beds at its 11 hospitals. The effort will begin with NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, NYC Health + Hospitals/ Lincoln and NYC Health + Hospitals/ Bellevue.
"The governor has called for hospitals to prepare for the surge, and New York City's public hospitals have been more than rising to the challenge of caring for the large number of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care," Mitchell Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said in a news release. "We're proud to be able to provide these incredibly important services at this critical moment in our city's life. And we will continue to work with city, state, federal officials and the private health systems in the city to secure as many more beds, healthcare personnel and equipment as we need to prepare for the peak time of the epidemic which is projected to occur sometime in April or early May."
The health system also plans to add about 2,500 healthcare workers for the fight against COVID-19.
Read more about the efforts here.