NYS to force temporary halt to electives at Bassett in Cooperstown

The New York State Department of Health on Monday (December 20) added Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown to its list of health care facilities with “minimal capacity,” forcing a temporary halt to elective surgeries and procedures for at least two weeks beginning later this week.

Under a November Executive Order from Governor Kathy Hochul, the state bars facilities with a staffed bed capacity of 10 percent or less from performing certain elective procedures and surgeries. Certain electives remain allowed, including those relating to cancer and diagnostic reviews, neurosurgery, intractable pain, trauma, cardiac with symptoms, and others.

Department of Health guidance requires all facilities in the state to continue to submit capacity and occupancy data on a daily basis. Using that information, DOH determines “impacted facilities” weekly and halts electives at those facilities for a period of two weeks.

The biweekly list may change as conditions in hospitals warrant; the Department’s December 20 roster removes some hospitals from the list announced December 6 but adds others, such as Bassett in Cooperstown, to the list of “impacted facilities.”

Other area facilities on the December 20 list include A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta, Cobleskill Regional Hospital, and Little Falls Hospital. All 28 hospitals on this week’s list are located in upstate New York, where officials report a steep increase in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.

Allotsego.com will continue to update this story as more details become available.