The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a severe shortage of another critical product in the U.S.: dye used to perform routine — but potentially lifesaving — patient scans and procedures at hospitals.
BryLin Behavioral Health System is closing its outpatient clinic in Amherst amid financial struggles that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the longtime provider to focus on its core inpatient mental health treatment programs within its flagship Buffalo hospital.
The inpatient adolescent mental health unit at Ellis Hospital is a resource that dozens of families around the Capital Region rely on. But due to staffing shortages, the hospital is closing the unit, which typically serves more than six children every day.
Lori Lee spends a lot of time trying to keep Connecticut's largest health system stocked with medical supplies from IV lines to gauze bandages. It's a job that's gotten increasingly harder as unprecedented snarls have tied the supply chain in knots.
The ongoing supply chain disruptions have made it difficult for medical officials to get their hands on much-needed equipment from wheelchairs, crutches to canes and even exam tables.