Minnesota emergency management officials said Monday they’ve begun to identify sites for 2,750 additional hospital beds to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
These beds would create the ranks of what officials are referring to as “alternate care sites” that would be needed to allow hospitals to handle an anticipated surge of sick patients when the epidemic peaks here, perhaps in one to three months.
The 2,750 would be in addition to the more-than 2,000 hospital beds already generally available throughout the state, and officials have a current goal of more than 5,000 total.
The sites have not been finalized, although officials confirmed Monday that one site being considered is a shuttered private prison in western Minnesota.
The alternate care sites are not envisioned for COVID-19 patients, but rather for other patients whose conditions are generally stable and unlikely to need intensive care treatment. A patient with a broken bone who needs to recover under medical care has been used as an example.
Officials envision that COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization would generally be treated in existing hospitals, where intensive care units are available. The disease’s most lethal blow is to bring on pneumonia that can cause blood oxygen levels to fall dangerously low. In such cases, an ICU bed and ventilator might be the only known way to save a patient’s life.
The conversion of Bethesda Rehabilitation Hospital in St. Paul to a COVID-only facility by M Health Fairview is consistent with in-hospital treatment of coronavirus patients. Bethesda is not an “alternate care site” in this plan.
2,750 BEDS, 5 SITES
Of the 2,750 beds, 1,000 are being sought for the metro, and 1,750 in greater Minnesota, according to Joe Kelly, the state’s director of homeland security and emergency management.
Kelly said teams had visited three of five potential sites.
“We’re not ready to identify the sites we’re considering,” Kelly said, emphasizing that nothing had been finalized.
However, when asked by a reporter about reports about the shuttered Prairie Correctional Center in Appleton, Kelly confirmed that teams had visited the privately owned prison, which once had a capacity of 1,600 beds, following requests from local officials.