Local And State Hospitals Prepare For Surge In COVID-19 Cases

KGNU’s Richard Kieffer spoke with Chana Goussetis of Boulder County Public Health on how prepared local hospitals are for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

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“We all have a system where we can monitor capacity in each hospital daily and that includes things like how many beds are available, how many ventilators are available. There’s also work going on the state level to coordinate hospital capacity across the state so that we ensure that there’s enough critical care available,” says Goussetis

Many people in the community have been wondering whether the old hospital campus on Broadway in Boulder could be brought back into use if more space is needed, but officials say that’s not an option as the old hospital building is completely non-functional because it has been torn apart on the inside.

On Monday, the Colorado State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) announced they’re working with communities across the state to prepare for the expected major increase in the need for intensive care unit (ICU) beds as a result of COVID-19.

The SEOC is partnering with local public health organizations, health care facilities, the Colorado Hospital Association, and federal and state agencies to prepare for a potential medical surge by:

• Identifying all current hospital beds in the state by type of care.
• Helping health care facilities with plans to free up ICU beds and transfer patients.
• Identifying and preparing alternative care sites that could be repurposed to provide medical care.
• Identifying and redeploying additional ventilators to areas of need with the goal of increasing ICU bed capacity.

Current estimates are that Colorado has 1,849 ICU beds across the state. The state’s goal is to add 1,000 beds by May, and to add another 5,000 by the summer.

(Image by Christian Slater from Pixabay)

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