Yale New Haven Hospital now has 182 patients currently being treated for COVID-19. That’s down from 472 at its peak. But it comes at a loss of nearly 500 patients across the health system, and two were employees.
“For all 500 people and their families it’s awful,” said Marna Borgstrom, CEO of Yale New Haven Health.
As numbers decline, they’ve returned 30 percent of their pre-COVID services that were put on hold. The move was a hit to their bottom line.
“We may end up with a $500 million operating loss,” said Borgstrom.
The hospital system did receive $200 million in relief funds through federal loans and the CARES Act. They’re hoping for more, but federal funds are stretched. Not only are hospitals being supported, so are uninsured COVID-19 patients.
“I think this is an evolving story that we’re going to be talking about more,” said Borgstrom.
Despite the uncertain picture, the hospital continues its work by stepping up testing as the state moves through reopening.
Local
“We’ve done 50,000 tests to date, and this is back since the beginning of March,” said Dr. Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer of Yale New Haven Health. “We anticipate to be doing 10,000 tests per day by the end of June. That’s a huge increase in the volume of testing.”
The hospital's Sargent Drive site will soon move to the Strong School. Construction on Sargent Drive will start this summer to build a new community health care facility. It's in partnership with Cornell Scott Hill Health and Fair Haven Health to provide more primary care access.
Hospital officials also hinted at two new test sites in New Haven and Bridgeport.
“We’re in the process of hiring up staff to staff those sites and then we’ll be able to announce exactly where those are as we move into June,” said Vin Petrini, SVP public affairs for Yale New Haven Health.
They’re working on getting access to the supplies to support 10,000 people a day and making sure there’s enough staff. They say more details will come next month.
