Scott McPherson's Web Presence

The lessons first came out of China:  In nine days, a 1,000 bed COVID-19 hospital was erected, furnished and staffed.  Then sports arenas, civic centers and other large buildings were taken over as makeshift hospitals.  

The Chinese philosophy was simple:  Keep suspected coronavirus patients separate and far apart from the general population of a hospital.  It was a lesson learned hard during the SARS epidemic/almost a pandemic in 2003.

Shift to King County, Washington.  King County has long been hailed as the national model for pandemic preparedness.  Over the years I have watched numerous press conferences, Webinars and Powerpoints that came from the King County health department.  I hold these people in very high esteem.  So when a cluster/outbreak began to occur there, I said that was the best possible place in America for that to happen.  If it happened anywhere, at least it happened there.  

Following the lead of the Chinese government, and following the WHO press conference of a couple of weeks ago when Dr. Bruce Aylward spoke glowingly of how the Chinese adopted that strategy, King County is moving to build surge capacity. Toward that end, King County just purchased a 24-room hotel -- with individual air conditioners, as opposed to central air and heat, which killed so many people in China and Toronto in 2003. Individual A/C units was a key to the purchase.  King County plans to send all non-severe COVID-19 cases to that facility, and others like it, if need be. 

Ever since COVID-19 got its name, I have ben thinking along similar lines.  What facilities could be pressed into service in case this virus takes a foothold and gets people sick?  Here in Tallahassee, we have a vacant Kohl's on the northeast side near Chiles High School that would function nicely.  All communities have vacant commercial buildings that could be pressed into service quickly.  Decision-makers need to scout these locations now and have plans in place to lease or buy them outright, now rather than later.  Follow the King County example.  That is what at least part of that $8 billion Congress just agreed to should be used for. If this thing turns nasty, that will not be the sole method of building surge capacity.  But plans should be made now to implement this strategy. 

Another sad fact of life is the (growing) number of hospitals -- mostly rural, but not always -- that are closing.  These hospitals just cannot afford to remain in business, for a variety of reasons but largely centering on reimbursement rates versus the costs of care.  Each state should compile an inventory of these shuttered hospitals with the intent to re-open them as COVID treatment centers. We'll need all the beds we can muster, again if this virus takes a nasty turn and starts appearing everywhere.