Exclusive: Nurses sound off on conditions at Montefiore Medical Center emergency room
NEW YORK -- Respiratory infections are spreading around the country after the holidays. Emergency room visits and deaths are on the rise nationwide compared to last week.
Nurses at one New York City hospital say their emergency room is so overcrowded, it's putting the safety of patients and staff at risk.
Stretchers cover every square foot of the ER at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. An ER that comfortably treats 60 patients now has more than 200.
"This is truly a patient safety emergency and they have to do something," one nurse said.
Nurses said the hospital has been so overcrowded these last few weeks, they leave the workday bruised from having to squeeze between stretchers.
"It's almost as if we're playing a game of Tetris to try and get around that room," nurse Michelle Gonzalez said.
When asked how the current conditions compare to peak COVID, nurse Nicole Camacho said, "Just as bad. Like, we're right there neck and neck."
The quality of care in a hallway, they say, does not compare to that in a real bed in a real room.
"Private things like a GYN exam. That should not be happening in the middle of the hallway. I'm ashamed that's the level of care we're providing to this community," Gonzalez said.
One year after these same nurses went on strike, they say their administration is failing patients and staff.
When asked how more space can be made, nurse Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez said, "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."
Hospitalizations are up across the state right now. Montefiore is in a neighborhood with a poverty rate that's nearly double the rest of the city.
"The demographics have a lot to do with it. People here are sicker and therefore come to here more," case manager Shaiju Kalathil said.
"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," Sheridan-Gonzalez said.
Nurses said they fear their patients will get worse if the situation doesn't get better.
CBS New York reached out to Montefiore several times for comment, but it has not provided any response to the nurses' claims.
