Officials with Finger Lakes Health say they were ready for the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Dr. Jason Feinberg called the lead time that their hospitals in Penn Yan and Geneva had over those in New York City a ‘significant luxury’ while speaking with the Finger Lakes Times this week.
Feinberg serves as vice president of medical affairs and also as chief medical officer of the health system.
“We were kind of watching China and watching Europe and then it was here,” he told the FLT.
Neither of FLH’s hospitals became overrun with COVID patients, but that was the concern from day one. To address it, he says doctors worked together like they never have before in his experience.
“Getting overrun was the fear,” he said. “How are we going to mitigate getting overrun? That’s why you have a plan.”
“The degree of cooperation and engagement, it brought us closer together and it reduced the fear and anxiety (of the highly contagious disease),” he said. “It’s certainly dangerous.”
While he’s happy that local hospitals were not overrun, he hopes that people remain vigilant moving forward to prevent another outbreak or second wave.
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