Silver lining : Hospitals keep practices born in COVID rush
TED SHAFFREY, Associated Press
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SYOSSET, N.Y. (AP) As coronavirus surged in New York last year, officials at the state s largest hospital system realized their old way of transferring patients to relieve stress on swamped emergency rooms just wasn t going to cut it.
Instead of time-consuming phone calls and emails, Northwell Health created a quicker, more efficient “crowd-sourcing” method using an online spreadsheet to match patients in need of a transfer with hospitals having available beds.
Now, Northwell Health, which operates 23 hospitals and 700 outpatient clinics in the New York City region, has made that system born in the midst of a crisis a permanent part of its operations.