Following approval from the New York State Department of Health to resume elective surgeries in Catholic Health on May 5, the health system expects to complete a full caseload of procedures this week. Catholic Health began a limited elective surgery schedule last week, after becoming the first hospital system in Erie County to receive a waiver from the Department of Health to begin performing procedures that have been suspended since early March. 

Creating a series of new processes in less than two weeks to meet the requirements of the waiver and keep its patients and staff safe, Catholic Health now tests all patients for COVID-19 prior to surgery, has developed a greeter process to ensure the comfort and safety of all patients, and is working with families to keep them updated while they are not able to wait on-site during their loved one's surgical procedure.

Catholic Health has been able to keep its surgical hospitals virtually COVID-free by transferring nearly all COVID patients to its Treatment Facility at St. Joseph Campus in Cheektowaga and its St. Joseph Post-Acute Center in Orchard Park. Today, Sisters of Charity Hospital's Main Street Campus and Mount St. Mary's Hospital in Lewiston have no COVID patients, while Mercy Hospital of Buffalo and Kenmore Mercy have only one COVID patient each.

"In addition to the new processes we put into place, our COVID Continuum at St. Joseph Campus and the St. Joseph Post-Acute Center is enabling us to provide a safer care environment for our elective surgery patients," said Mark Sullivan, president & CEO of Catholic Health. "With the support of our surgeons and our surgical care team throughout Catholic Health, we are providing the highest quality surgical care, while reducing the backlog of elective surgery cases as quickly as possible." 

Along with its three Erie County Hospitals, Catholic Health has also been performing elective surgery procedures at Mount St. Mary's Hospital since early May.