Hospital Overcrowding

Business is booming at Putnam Hospital Center. Putnam County's only hospital is filled to capacity and has stopped accepting patients. The Hospital's chief executive officer, Rodney Huebbers, says Putnam Hospital as 144 patients, and it's capacity is 140. He says the overcrowding is being evaluated at the end of each eight-hour shift. He says critically injured patients should be brought to Putnam Hospital. But ambulances with non-critically injured patients are being re-routed to nearby hospitals - such as: - Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Peekskill; - Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco; - Danbury Hospital in Connecitcut; - Vassar Brothers Hospital in Pughkeepsie. Huebbers says the sudden increase in patients is hard to explain. He says they've seen some flu cases, but nothing else that's unusual.