April 18, 2020

Upstate Medical University Chapter member Chris Tanski is calling the shots at the sprawling temporary coronavirus hospital at the Javits Convention Center.

Tanski, an emergency room doctor at Upstate Medical University, is the chief medical officer at the 1,000-bed makeshift hospital in New York City. He’s been there since April 9, according to the Upstate website.

The doctor isn’t treating any of the nearly 350 patients at the facility, all of them COVID-19 patients. Instead, he’s handling the hospital’s operations, overseeing hundreds of doctors and nurses—many of whom are members of the military.

“I’m here 7, 7:30 in the morning until 8 or 9 at night, and every day,” Tanski told Rochester’s WHEC-TV April 13. “There’s no time off with that. I just remind myself, these patients here are having the worst day of their lives. They have this unknown virus, they’d rather be home, and we’re trying to do whatever we can to take care of them and get them home.”

Tanski, 41, who was tapped for the Javits job by the New York State Department of Health, is also involved in managing health care providers on the U.S. Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort, a COVID-19 field hospital docked at Manhattan’s Pier 90.

While he doesn’t tend to patients, he’s in contact with them, and that’s a concern.

“It’s 100 percent COVID patients,” Tanski told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle April 15. “It’s incredibly high-risk.”

Tanski hasn’t seen his wife, Holly, and his two daughters—4-year-old Audrey and 6-month-old Lucy—since he left. And it could be a while before he sees them again.

On April 15, the governor’s office asked Tanski to continue as medical director until the Javits Center hospital is closed. Tanski agreed.

“I don’t even know if I’m going to still be here two months from now,” Tanski told Syracuse.com April 16. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”