Cayuga Medical Center to restart elective surgeries the week of May 4

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cayuga Health announced Tuesday that it will resume performing outpatient elective surgeries the week of May 4 at Cayuga Medical Center, because the hospital meets Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s requirements.

Cayuga Health’s Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls will restart elective procedures on May 12.

New York State requires fewer than 10 new hospitalizations of coronavirus patients in a county over the past 10 days in order for the elective procedures to resume in that county. Patients also must test negative for COVID-19 before undergoing a surgical procedure.

 “For the past seven weeks, COVID-19 has impacted our operation throughout Cayuga Health System. Per the Governor’s announcement last week, our team is preparing, and getting ready. Safety is our first priority on meeting the needs of our elective surgery patients,” Dr. Martin Stallone, president and CEO of Cayuga Health, said in a statement. “We are ready and able to resume elective surgery with an adequate supply of PPE, all infection control measures will be followed, and safety monitoring is already in place to make sure our patients are safe. Our team in surgical services has been working hard over the past several weeks to prepare for the reopening of outpatient elective surgeries and we are ready to resume.”

Testing for COVID-19 is available at the Cayuga Health sampling site  at The Shops at Ithaca Mall parking lot at 40 Catherwood Road in Lansing, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. A website with online registration is available at www.cayugahealth.org for patients to review the screening criteria and pre-register before their arrival. Patients can also phone a call center at (607) 319-5708.

 Cuomo on April 21 announced that hospitals would be able to resume performing elective outpatient procedures on April 28 in counties that meet the guidelines for new COVID-19 hospitalizations and bed capacity.

The governor in March ordered hospitals across the state to cancel elective surgeries to make room for a flood of COVID-19 patients, which largely has not materialized in the Southern Tier, Central New York, and other parts of Upstate.

Elective surgeries that are scheduled in advance — such as hip and knee replacements, tonsillectomies, and hernia repairs — are generally hospitals’ biggest generators of revenue.