Hospital in Boston will be converted into Covid-19 treatment center – STAT

March 18, 2020

A Texas-based health care system announced Tuesday that it would convert one of its hospitals in Boston into a treatment center specifically for patients with Covid-19, taking special measures to clear the air of contamination and increasing its supply of ventilators and personal protective equipment.

The company, Steward Health Care, said Carney Hospital, located in Bostons Dorchester neighborhood, would become the nations first dedicated care center for treating patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

In a statement Tuesday, Steward Health Care said, among other measures, crews are adding negative pressure systems that clear the air of any contamination. The goal is to ensure that people who are hospitalized with severe Covid-19 infections can receive the dedicated care some require, as well as to allow regular operations at the companys other sites.

We are prepared for an influx, the company said, though, as of now, the companys hospitals nationwide have treated just 10 patients with confirmed infections. The company, which is based in Dallas, has 35 community hospitals in nine states.

A significant amount of our resources remains centralized, ready to be deployed or redeployed across our different regions if and when they are needed, the company said.

Hospitals around the country have already been allotting certain floors to treat Covid-19, canceling elective surgeries and other procedures that can be delayed, and postponing some appointments.

The concern is that a crush of Covid-19 patients could require all of a hospitals resources and equipment. Though its estimated that only a few percent of infections cause critical disease, a rapid spread of the virus throughout communities could still leave thousands of patients requiring intensive care and needing to be put on ventilators for long stretches of time.

Already, some hospitals have reported shortages of personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, and gowns, and some providers have said they have resorted to cleaning and reusing supplies they would have normally discarded. Though the availability of supplies varies around the country, some facilities have said theyre facing a lack of basic materials as well, including nasal swabs that are needed to conduct test for the virus.

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