Staffing Up For The Surge: Expanding The New York City Public Hospital Workforce During The COVID-19 Pandemic

• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00904
• Publication Date: 2020-06-11T19:45:12Z
• Authors: Chris Keeley; Jonathan Jimenez; Hannah Jackson; Leon Boudourakis; R. James Salway; Natalia Cineas; Yvette Villanueva; Donnie Bell; Andrew B. Wallach; Donna Boyle Schwartz; Ivelesse Mendez-J...; Theodore G. Long
• Keywords: Staffing; Onboarding; Surge Capacity; Credentialing; Pandemic

Confronted with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, New York City Health + Hospitals, city's public health care system, rapidly expanded capacity across its eleven acute hospitals and three new field hospitals. To meet unprecedented demand for patient care, NYC Hospitals redeployed staff to areas of greatest need redesigned recruiting, onboarding, training processes. The hospital system engaged private staffing agencies, partnered Department Defense, recruited volunteers throughout country. A centralized onboarding team created a single-source portal medical providers requiring credentialing established positions increase efficiency. Using educational tools focused on COVID-19 content, trained twenty thousand members, including nearly nine nurses, within two-month period. Creation multidisciplinary teams, frequent enterprisewide communication, willingness shift direction in response changing needs, innovative use technology were key factors that enabled goals.