Catholic Health System announced Monday it is extending the temporary closure of the emergency department at the Mercy Ambulatory Care Center in Orchard Park through the end of January.
The decision was made amid the "continued surge in Covid-19 patients across the region, as well as the increasing number of hospital staff who are unable to work after testing positive for the virus," the health system said in a news release.
Given the extended closure of the MACC's emergency department, the facility's cardiac rehabilitation services also will remain temporarily suspended. All other outpatient services, including pre-surgical testing, imaging services and the Covid swabbing station, remain open at the center at 3669 Southwestern Blvd.
The MACC's emergency department has been closed since Nov. 9, when Catholic Health decided to concentrate resources on resuming full emergency medical services at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo as the Abbott Road facility scaled back up following a 35-day strike. Just over a week later, on Nov. 18, Catholic Health opted to extend the closure of the MACC's emergency department, targeting a reopening by Jan. 3.
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Two months after that decision, however, the health care industry's staffing challenges have not abated.
In fact, the situation may be even worse, with the Omicron variant delivering a double-whammy to hospitals: an increasing number of Covid-19 hospitalizations, albeit often milder cases than previous waves, as well as more employees testing positive as the highly contagious variant sweeps through the region.
And, once an employee tests positive, they are out a minimum of five days, per the latest federal and state guidance on isolation periods.
With those increased employee cases in mind, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced health care workers in New York will be required to get a booster shot within two weeks of when they're eligible, unless they have a valid medical exemption. That mandate will go before a state health council Tuesday, where approval is anticipated, Hochul said.
"You've already seen what's been happening in our health care environments," Hochul said Friday. "Staff is getting sick, they're leaving. We need them to get well, we need them to have the best fortification they possibly can, and that means getting a booster shot, as well."
Like the original vaccine order last fall, there will be no opt out for getting tested instead of boosted. “You would want to make sure that anyone taking care of you is fully protected," the governor said.
Healthy hospital employees also are grappling with high Covid-19 volume.
State data shows 572 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in the five-county Western New York region on Saturday, a higher daily count than prior pandemic peaks. But importantly, fewer of those patients are in the intensive care unit. As of Saturday, 86 Covid-19 patients were in the ICU across Western New York, compared with 113 about one month earlier on Dec. 11.
"While hospital Covid volume is high across the region, we are seeing changes in the level of severity with fewer critical care patients," Catholic Health said in a statement to The Buffalo News last week. "We are also finding many patients who are Covid-positive are being hospitalized for other unrelated medical conditions which can better be treated at an acute care hospital."
