Two of the biggest hospital systems in the Northeast — New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — plan to cancel nonemergency surgeries. NYU Langone Medical Center’s Tisch Hospital turned a pediatric emergency room into a respiratory ward for adults. Northwell Health, which has a sprawling network of hospitals, is asking retired nurses to return to work.

But New York City’s hospitals, widely considered among the best in the world, may still be moving too slowly to get ready for a coronavirus outbreak that has already overwhelmed other countries and is now taking root in the New York region, according to many health care experts.

“We are not prepared to deal with a rapid and severe surge of patients — we’re just not,” said Dr. Christopher M. Tedeschi, a …continued .
[Source: New York Times]