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Healthcare professional at Mass. Eye and Ear tests positive for coronavirus
By adamg on Sun, 03/15/2020 - 12:02am
Update: Brigham and Women's, too.
WBZ reports. The person is now in self quarantine at home and the hospital is alerting everybody the person had contact with.
Boston reports that as of today, 27 residents have tested positive for Covid-19, although that may not mean much given how little testing Massachusetts doctors have been able to do.
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Comments
I was reading an interesting
I was reading an interesting article this evening about concerns of medical system capacity here in the US.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/14/hospital-doctors-pati...
Is there any way powers-that-be would/could activate the unused space in the Quincy Hospital building? (assuming that there is unused space there and hasn't been repurposed when I wasn't paying attention) Perhaps not as acute care but isolation?
Good Idea
The problem is the city of Quincy won't even let Long Island shelter and hospital reopen for a shelter for the homeless,they will never allow Quincy Hospital to be used to quarantine the sick.
Nothing is off the table
I know in Medford, the recently closed areas of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital are shortlisted for additional space, and closed (mostly rural) hospitals are being eyed in many states. It depends on what would have to be done to bring it back to operating levels.
One of the more serious issues is not space, but what equipment remains and how the facilities would be staffed. The most critical piece of equipment is ventilators and people who can run/maintain them. My niece is an ER nurse in Illinois and there is a "vent census" going on there, with every hospital or rehab/care facility being searched for exactly what is stored where. I suspect that similar inventories of space, gear, and staff are being conducted here, if they are not already a part of the Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management prep inventories.
Even more creative, Washington state is flipping an econolodge into a isolation property for people who need to be isolated, but can't do it at home. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a31253682/coronavirus-motel-quaran...
Somerville Hospital is scheduled to close its ER on April 30
and replace it with a (non-24-hour) Urgent Care facility. This seems like a Really Bad Idea right now.
Thank you. I was guessing
Thank you. I was guessing something along the lines of an isolation/monitoring facility, not knowing if enough personnel/equipment are available to operate it as acute care.
Mostly, I was wondering how long it would take to clean any place like that and ramp up for whatever use.
Hopefully China can help with equipment
With all 16 of their temporary hospitals closed down and case #s decreasing, they may have some extra equipment available to lend out to other countries. I'm sure they borrowed a lot of it from other regions within the country that were not hit as hard, but I would have to think they've ramped up production of certain things that were/are the most in demand.
As far as building space goes, there are a fair number of buildings in the area with giant "FOR LEASE" signs on the windows, many with both office and lab spaces available. I bet some of those could be converted to provide healthcare services with relatively minimal work.
Depends on the ventilation setup
If they can't isolate that, they can't isolate patients.
One of the critical features of the Econolodge in Kent, Washington was the HVAC was all direct through the wall and there were no shared ducts or hallways.
True
I work in a building with a warehouse, offices, labs, and cleanrooms. That's the type of place I'm picturing. If a cleanroom's ventilation system could be reversed relatively easily to provide negative pressure rather than positive, that could be useful. I don't know how much work it would take, just thinking out loud.
China isn’t going to help the US
Also I believe they’ve sent Italy their surplus and unused equipment.
Never having been to China, I
Never having been to China, I'll ask - what voltage do they run on over there?
Basically, only the US is 110
Basically, only the US is 110, and a few places that modeled after us. Almost everywhere else in the world is 220V.
Right next to...
MGH.
Try BWH or BIMC. You can get to both from Charles station. They are General Hospitals.
maybe not BWH either
Brigham and Women’s doctor infected; hospital notifying staff, patients
I am supposed to have laser eye surgery there on Thursday
and I'm now wondering if that is going to be postponed, or perhaps moved to one of MEEI's satellite or suburban locations.
Call... might cancel
Many hospitals are calling patients that have non-urgent procedures or check-ups scheduled in the coming weeks and are postponing the visits. This household received such a call from a major Boston hospital clinic desk at the end of this past week. No reschedule dates are being offered either.
The question will be whether your surgeon believes this is an urgent need or if it can wait a couple of weeks or more.
Call on Monday if they don't call you this weekend first.
convert the convention center to a temporary hospital
Governor Baker, Mayor Walsh for God sake please start converting the convention centers to temporary hospital beds NOW! Lets stay a step ahead if we can. But this should have started to de done yesterday. Let us all be prepared not panicked. Better to waste some money in doing this convertion now even if not needed then to scramble latter.
Let build 20K extra bed capacity in mass.