Nurses in NY Face Severe Hospital Overcrowding

• Nurses at the Emergency Room in Montefiore Medical Center are speaking out about severe hospital overcrowding that endangers their patients and hinders their ability to provide care.
• Learn how overcrowding has plagued these nurses since 2018, including one nurse caring for up to 12 critically ill children at the same time and private examinations being done in public spaces. 
• Review the proposed solutions to this problem based on experiences during COVID-19, as well as the communication from Montefiore Medical Center about this problem.

Montefiore Medical Center’s ER in New York has faced extreme overcrowding at over 300% capacity. Nurses describe “playing a game of Tetris” to get around the room and leave work with bruises from squeezing between stretches. 

This overcrowding problem comes just a year after nurses at Montefiore’s facility in the Bronx went on strike over a lack of accountability from the hospital’s administration over short staffing, a lack of supplies, and overcrowding.

Overcrowding creates a dangerous breeding ground for infection and a cyclical problem where sick patients get sicker when seeking out care, spreading illness and causing more patients to seek care. With respiratory illnesses like COVID-19, RSV, and the Flu being more prevalent, it is vital that these issues do not go unaddressed.

This article will summarize the history of overcrowding at Montefiore, proposed solutions, and the response given by the administration. This outcry from nurses is an act of courage as they are swamped by over 200 patients in a facility only prepared to treat 60 at a time.

Hospital Overcrowding at Montefiore Medical Center

Overcrowding at Montefiore has become so unmanageable that a private gynecology examination was performed in a public hallway due to a lack of adequate space to provide privacy. 

This problem at Montefiore is, unfortunately, not a new one. In August 2023, a patient at Montefiore Family Health Center died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, and her death was not noticed for five days before a “foul odor” was reported coming from the stairwell where she had fallen. 

The deceased patient had been an active community organizer and voice against Montefiore’s 2022 plans to consolidate three of its locations. This consolidation is now being linked to the overcrowding problems as nurses are unable to create room for the volume of patients seeking care.

Even earlier in 2018, overcrowding caused nurses to treat up to 12 critically ill children at the same time. At this time, data came out states ER patients at Montefiore wait an average of 64 minutes to be seen by a nurse. This is over double the national average.

Montefiore has yet to offer any rationale for the consolidation, answer any questions regarding the death of their patient, or comment on the current overcrowding crisis. Despite this radio silence, Montefiore Medical Center has been granted $2 million by the NY State Department of Health to advance the education and training of community healthcare workers.

Proposed Solutions to Hospital Overcrowding

A nurse at Montefiore, Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, explained that “During COVID, they created many, many more units on an emergency basis and we have identified space they can use right now. When we raised the issue to the hospital, they were silent and then a few weeks later they converted it into a ballroom.” 

Due to a lack of communication from Montefiore, it is unclear what needs this ballroom will fulfill, but hopefully, more units will soon be created for the hospital’s ER. 

Another solution to help with the chaos is to offer signs and resources in languages other than English. Montefiore serves many Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees who often have limited English fluency. 

Despite this being a known issue for over 20 years, crucial signs such as emergency exits are still only labeled in English. 

Nurses are taking a proactive approach to publicizing the failing conditions at Montefiore in an effort to prevent avoidable tragedies and lapses in patient care. It is frustrating that nurses are looking to COVID-19, one of the worst and most dangerous times in recent memory for nurses, for solutions.

Despite the lack of action from Montefiore’s administration, these nurses’ testimonies are garnering national attention and will likely cause government officials to intervene on behalf of patient safety.

Nurse Sheridan-Gonzalez reiterated her frustration and commitment to patient care, “Here, we are supposed to be ‘Do no harm.’ That’s why we became nurses, to give that loving care, and we’re not able to do it.”

The Bottom Line

Addressing issues of understaffing and overcrowding is more important now than ever as cases of hospitalization due to COVID-19 continue to rise to over 35,000 cases in the first week of 2024. Nurses deserve the best resources possible in order to safely care for patients and grant them individual attention necessary for bedside care. 

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