The Scramble Is On To Build Temporary Healthcare Space

In the face of a pandemic that threatens to overwhelm the U.S. capacity to provide healthcare, states and localities are racing to improvise new space.

As the number of acute COVID-19 cases grows exponentially, so does the need for beds. The hundreds of thousands of expected COVID-19 patients will need them, and others will too, in ways that don't expose them to the virus.

Across the country, governments and the private sector are working to expand existing healthcare facilities and convert or construct a wide variety of other spaces into makeshift hospitals as the healthcare industry prepares to be overwhelmed.

The need for beds will be most urgent in the coming month, perhaps peaking in mid-April, the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said on Monday.

More than 224,300 hospital beds will be needed nationwide by April 15 because of the outbreak, the institute estimates. That leaves the U.S. healthcare system with a bed shortage of more than 61,500. The virus could drive the need for more than 33,400 ICU beds — for patients who need to be treated with a ventilator — by April 15, representing a shortage of more than 15,000.

The first line of attack for many municipalities has been to try expanding the capacity of existing facilities.

"During this crisis, we've seen different types of properties being used by hospital systems to meet rising patient demand," Transwestern Executive Managing Director of National Healthcare Advisory Services Eric Johnson said. "One of the fastest conversions has been taking vacant post-acute and behavioral health beds and using them for makeshift triage facilities for COVID-19 patients."

In Chicago, Rush University Medical Center expanded its capacity by transforming its lobby into an emergency room for mildly sick or injured patients and is performing triage in tents raised in its emergency department’s ambulance bay, which has become an area for testing potential COVID-19 patients in isolation.

The triage area includes seats placed 6 feet apart, to lessen the risk of cross-contamination. The area also includes controlled entry into the hospital and negative airflow, to guard against the rest of the patient population coming into to contact with COVID-19 patients.