Hospitals In HV Among Slowest To Administer Coronavirus Vaccine

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Hospitals that do not quickly finish administering their allocations of the coronavirus vaccine could be fined up to $100,000 and won't get more, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

Since the vaccine was rolled out three weeks ago, hospitals statewide have used up 46 percent of their allotment, Cuomo said.

Some have been very efficient. For example, NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, which runs 10 hospitals including Lawrence and Hudson Valley hospitals in Westchester County, has used 99 percent of its allotment.

Northwell Health, which runs Northern Westchester and Phelps hospitals, has given vaccines to 62 percent of its staff, making it one of the 10 most efficient, the governor said.

Others, however, including several in the Hudson Valley, have been slower.

Nuvance Health, which runs seven hospitals including Putnam Hospital in Putnam County and Vassar Brothers Medical Center and Northern Dutchess Hospital in Dutchess County, is the third-lowest, having used just 24 percent of its vaccine allotment, according to Cuomo.

Montefiore Healthcare System, which runs 10 hospitals including Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, White Plains, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle hospitals in Westchester, Nyack Hospital in Rockland County and St. Luke's Cornwall in Orange County, has used just 30 percent of its vaccine allotment.

Westchester Medical Center has administered 32 percent of its allotment.

"We want those vaccines in people's arms," Cuomo said. "We need them to administer the vaccines faster."

In response, Nuvance Health spokesman John Nelson said the network had rapidly opened coronavirus vaccine clinics at Northern Dutchess Hospital, Putnam Hospital and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in New York.

"We started opening our New York clinics starting December 21 immediately upon receipt of vaccines allotted to us from the state of New York," Nelson said Monday afternoon. "Since then, we have been actively vaccinating our healthcare workers who want a vaccine. There is general excitement about vaccines across our health system and we will continue to offer vaccines following federal and state distribution guidelines."

Cuomo singled out county executives including Westchester's George Latimer as needing to take on responsibility.

Responding during an afternoon news briefing, Latimer said the county is happy to work with the hospitals to get more vaccines to the public. The mission here is to make sure as many people are vaccinated as possible, Latimer said.

Latimer said he would be talking to Westchester Medical Center President and CEO Michael D. Israel. He said it was important to understand that up to this point the county had no control. The county government spun off the medical center in 1998 and it became an independent public benefit corporation.

The New York State Department of Health sent a letter over the weekend to the 194 hospitals in the state, 170 of them privately-run, warning if hospitals don't administer their allocation of the vaccine by the end of this week, they can not only be fined but also prevented from receiving more vaccine shipments.

"We will use other hospitals who can administer it better," Cuomo said.

"This is a very serious public health issue," he said. "This is a matter of life and death so yes, I'm impatient."

Across New York, there were 138 deaths reported Saturday and 170 deaths Sunday from COVID-19, according to the state health department.

The Westchester Medical Center had not responded to Patch's request for comment before this article was published.