Gov. Kathy Hochul joined NYC Health + Hospitals president and CEO, Dr. Mitchell Katz, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, and District 11 city council member, Eric Dinowitz, on Tuesday, Feb. 1, to thank the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) medical team for supporting health care workers at NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx (NCB), located on Kossuth Avenue in Norwood.

 

Hospital officials said the DoD team is comprised of providers, nurses, army medics, respiratory technicians, and command staff. The team arrived on Tuesday, Jan. 25, were trained on hospital policies and procedures, and later began to shadow regular staff. Their first full day at the hospital was Friday, Jan. 28. According to hospital officials, the DOD team will be mobilized at NCB for a minimum of 30 days. This is the second DoD medical team to assist NYC Health + Hospitals through the COVID-19 omicron variant surge, hospital officials said.

 

Speaking during her visit to the hospital on Feb. 1, Hochul said, “As we’ve fought the COVID pandemic for the past two years, health care workers at North Central Bronx Hospital and across New York State have been on the front lines providing life-saving care.” She added, “On behalf of all New Yorkers, I want to thank our federal partners and the Department of Defense medical team for answering the call of duty and joining our fight against the pandemic. Working together with our health care heroes in New York, I know they will be a critical part of our efforts to defeat the winter surge.”

 

For his part, Katz said the health care workers at NCB had done a tremendous job taking care of patients through every wave of the pandemic and that it was time they got a much-needed break. “It was great having Gov. Hochul at our hospital, visiting with our staff and meeting the military medical team,” he said. “We thank the governor for her continued leadership and support, and we’re grateful to the Biden Administration and the Department of Defense for assisting us in the fight against COVID-19.”

 

Meanwhile, NYC Health + Hospitals/NCB CEO, Christopher Mastromano, said Bronx families had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and that the borough was continuing to see some of the highest COVID-19 positivity rates across the city. “Our staff has been working around the clock to care for our neighbors and we thank the DoD medical team for supporting us as we nurse The Bronx back to health,” he said.

 

On Wednesday, Feb. 2, NYC Health+Hospitals Test & Trace Corps announced that the Trace program texted over 700,000 cases and close contacts in response to the omicron surge, [since it began] and have launched an Exposure Guidance Tool to quickly connect those exposed with critical healthcare and quarantine resources.

 

As reported last year, Katz announced on Feb. 26, 2021, that Cristina Contreras, then executive director of NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx (NCB), was being promoted to CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan based in East Harlem, effective April 2021. Currently, in addition to Mastromano, the hospital’s leadership team comprises Alfredo Jones,  deputy executive director, and Michael Zinaman, MD, chief medical officer.

 

We, previously, also reported in 2019 that both NCB and Jacobi Medical Center, the latter also part of NYC Health + Hospitals, were to begin operating under the same New York State Department of Health certificate in efforts to improve overall efficiency. We reached out to NYC Health + Hospitals for a status update on the project in February 2021, and we were informed that the project was “still in process but nearing completion,” at that time. We have since reached out to the hospital system for more information and will update this story upon receipt of any new detail we receive.

 

Last year, Norwood News also reported on the mental health toll the pandemic has placed on NYC Health+Hospitals physicians and other medical staff, and the new wellness center that was opened at Jacobi at that time in response to the needs of the medical staff.

 

Meanwhile, back at NCB, U.S. Army Capt. Elizabeth Huizenga said her soldiers, active-duty military doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists, came from a variety of military installations across the nation and brought with them an overabundance of medical experience and knowledge, and a ‘can do’ spirit. “Our attitude and expertise, coupled with the proficiency of the NCB hospital staff, will prove invaluable as we work together to tackle a rise in hospitalizations from coronavirus,” she said.

 

 

Espaillat, who represents parts of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan, took the opportunity to commend U.S. President Joe Biden, Hochul, the DoD, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for deploying the military medical teams to New York City. “The DoD care and assistance will be critical in our response to the recent COVID-19 spike,” he said. “We have made progress throughout our city – but our fight is far from over – especially as our frontline health care workers at the North Central Bronx Hospital and around New York have worked tirelessly to care for our communities – for the last two years.”

 

As reported, Espaillat and Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-6) who represents parts of Queens, announced in September 2021, that they had been leading an effort to eliminate barriers to federal disaster relief from FEMA and elsewhere in the wake of Hurricane Ida. They took the lead in writing a letter, calling on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Chairman Peter DeFazio, who chairs the congressional committee on transportation and infrastructure, to include Espaillat’s bill, H.R. 3037 – the Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act of 2021 in emergency disaster supplemental funding. On Sept. 22, they confirmed having secured over $11 billion in federal relief to help New Yorkers recover from the devastation caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

 

Though overall, according to data from NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are are all falling, COVID patients still account for much of the work of the NCB employees, who also need to recuperate and take some time off following the year-end surge. “We are grateful to them daily for their ongoing efforts and are equally grateful for the support of the DoD medical team to reinforce their work in this fight against COVID-19,” the congressman added.

 

The DoD medical team will provide staffing support in key areas such as the emergency department, intensive care units and the medical-surgery unit, according to hospital officials. This is to ensure uninterrupted and timely care continues to be delivered. NYC Health + Hospitals received support from the DoD across the health care system during the first wave of COVID-19 also and medical teams also addressed the emotional and mental health needs of frontline staffers.

 

Our health care heroes have been there for us throughout this pandemic, and we’re going to be there for them. pic.twitter.com/8KVlgGst0w

— Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February 1, 2022

 

NCB is a member facility of the New York City Health + Hospitals health care system, one of eleven acute care facilities within the City of New York. A 215-bed community hospital, NCB specializes in women’s and children’s services. Amid the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Norwood News reported in May 2020 on the opening of a new wing dedicated to COVID-19 ICU patients at the hospital, after it had adjusted to working in a make-shift COVID-19 ward at the beginning of the pandemic.

 

The same month, we also reported on how members of the creative arts therapy department at NCB had been spreading much-needed joy and light relief throughout the hospital, located on Kossuth Avenue in Norwood, with song and dance performances, for the benefit of both patients and staff.

 

For his part, on Tuesday, Feb. 1, Dinowitz reiterated the point about The Bronx being one of the areas hit hardest by COVID-19 amid the pandemic. “Gov. Hochul has been a constant presence here in The Bronx to provide real support,” he said. “Our frontline healthcare workers have been making continued sacrifices to provide care for their patients. I deeply appreciate the Department of Defense medical team for providing North Central Bronx Hospital with the support they need to continue to serve, and reliably attend to our fellow Bronxites.”

 

“The surge came and now is starting to go away.”

Covid infections in New York state have fallen 92% from the state’s peak of roughly 90,000 a few weeks ago, @GovKathyHochul said Tuesday https://t.co/L2cF1odUFz pic.twitter.com/3Wk6Y5u7sp

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) February 1, 2022

According to hospital officials, NCB’s busy outpatient department has led the way in community-based care delivered in a compassionate and culturally-appropriate manner, and its labor and delivery service safely brings more than 1,000 babies into the world each year. Hospital officials said NCB is committed to providing safe, high-quality medical care for any and all in need. For more information visit http://www.nyc.gov/hhc/ncbh/.

 

 NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation, serving more than a million New Yorkers, annually, in more than 70 patient care locations across the City’s five boroughs. Hospital officials said it comprises a robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based, primary and specialty care centers, anchoring care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals.

 

They said the network’s diverse workforce of more than 42,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org.