Coronavirus In Colorado: Non-Traditional Spaces Could Be Used For Surge Of Patients

DENVER (CBS4) - As the state moves forward with surge preparations for coronavirus patients, officials say you may see non-traditional, publicly used spaces transformed for hospital bed space.

"I think you'll see the preparations go into place. You'll see those facilities stood-up regardless of whether or not the need is there. It's better to be prepared and not use those facilities then not be prepared when those wave of patients come," said Joshua Ewing, Associate Vice President of Legislative Affairs for the Colorado Hospital Association.

For now Ewing says hospitals are able to create space for the anticipated surge.

"You'll notice in different hospitals across the state, ambulatory surgery centers, emergency departments, that are being used as additional hospital capacity in order to meet the growing need for hospital beds in Colorado."

Ewing has been busy. His job is to make sure the state is working to meet the needs of the health care workers, and he says while they hope the hospital space is enough, alternative spaces are being considered.

"We have a variety of options available to us in Colorado whether it's hotels, dorms, larger spaces like convention centers. There are many ways to approach this and we'll probably need to utilize a variety of those facilities should the surge be as big as we're anticipating," Ewing continued. "It will be based upon the needs of the patient. Some folks are going to need more one-on-one types of care, other folks will be in recovery and can be in a bigger space such as a convention center or something like that. Again, our hope is that we can utilize the existing space and with those social distance measures, if we can spread out the wave of patients not have to get to those points."

The city of Denver said the Convention Center was a possibility, but is still in discussions with the state about what makes most sense.

"We absolutely have to be prepared as a state for the worst case scenario, but I think as long as we practice the social distancing measures that have been put in place and think creatively about the way we use our healthcare resources we can minimize the need for much of those efforts," said Ewing.

He added while there was a lot of work to do in a short period of time, Colorado was doing better in the fight against the novel virus than many other states.