The major hospitals in the Binghamton area that are teetering on the brink of bed capacity limits under the latest surge of COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalization  are avoiding surgery delays at least for now.

United Health Services’ Wilson Medical Center and Ascension Our Lady of Lourdes at the end of November were listed on the Health Department tally of medical facilities in danger of procedure suspensions under an Emergency Declaration from Governor Kathy Hochul since their number of available staffed beds were close to being at ten percent or less.

Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News
Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News
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This week, the Broome County facilities are not on the list of 32 hospitals state-wide listed at the threshold of ten percent or less available staffed beds and being ordered to shut-down non-urgent procedures until January 15.

Guthrie Cortland Medical Center, A.O. Fox Memorial in Oneonta, Crouse Memorial and Upstate Medical facilities in Syracuse are among Central New York facilities that are on the list.

December 8, Broome County reported 77 people hospitalized with COVID-related illness. Cortland county reported 6 people currently hospitalized.

Under the Governor’s order things like hip replacement and cataract treatment would be delayed. Not falling under the directive are more time sensitive procedures: things related to cancer treatment, pain, transplants, trauma, cardiac and dialysis treatments.

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Officials say capacity levels are being re-evaluated on a rolling basis, so facilities may not be tied down to the January 15th date for resuming non-urgent treatments.

In Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reports one of the state's largest health systems has run out of beds because of the latest COVID-19 surge, with emergency room delays of 10 to 20 hours.

Kathy Whyte/ WNBF News
Kathy Whyte/ WNBF News
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Geisinger is running at 110 percent capacity across its nine hospitals in central and northeastern Pennsylvania — overrun with largely unvaccinated COVID-19 patients who represent a quarter to well over half of all admissions. That's according to Doctor Jaewon Ryu, Geisinger’s president and chief executive officer.

He said December 8 he expects the situation to deteriorate further in coming weeks, citing sharply rising case and test positivity numbers.

As of noon December 8, Pennsylvania health officials reported 4,317 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide with 896 of those adult patients in Intensive Care.

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