ICU nurse Jessica Sobczak tends to a patient with Covid-19 on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Brooks-TLC Hospital in Dunkirk, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021.
Derek Gee / Buffalo News
Registered nurse Jennifer Savary, a traveler who is filling in due to the shortage of staff, manages equipment as a doctor tends to a patient in the emergency room at Brooks-TLC Hospital in Dunkirk.
Hospitals across Western New York, the state and the country are facing a capacity crunch, the culmination of staffing shortages, a difficulty discharging patients and significant Covid-19 hospitalizations.
While the number of workers who lost or are losing their jobs is a small percentage of total workers, every little bit hurts amid a staffing shortage that means hospitals can't operate as many beds – especially during yet another wave of Covid-19 hospitalizations.
There are other factors pressuring local hospitals, from employee shortages to difficulties discharging patients who need to be in long-term care facilities that don't have room.
The state order limiting nonessential elective procedures at hospitals with tightening capacity resulted in a difficult situation for an Orchard Park woman trying to have spinal surgery.
Registered respiratory therapist Mario Bynum, a traveler from Arkansas who is filling in due to a shortage of staff, prepares a treatment for a patient in the emergency room at Brooks-TLC Hospital in Dunkirk.
ICU nurse Jessica Sobczak tends to a patient with Covid-19 on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Brooks-TLC Hospital in Dunkirk, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021.
Registered respiratory therapist Mario Bynum, a traveler from Arkansas who is filling in due to a shortage of staff, prepares a treatment for a patient in the emergency room at Brooks-TLC Hospital in Dunkirk.
Registered nurse Jennifer Savary, a traveler who is filling in due to the shortage of staff, manages equipment as a doctor tends to a patient in the emergency room at Brooks-TLC Hospital in Dunkirk.
