Coronavirus In Colorado: Denver Health Activates Incident Command To Deal With COVID-19 Patients

DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Health officials are sharing insight into how their hospital is responding to coronavirus.

"We are seeing more cases coming in more hospitalized patients," Chief Medical Officer Connie Price said.

As of Friday, there were 43 COVID-19 patients being treated by Denver Health staff; half of those were in the intensive care unit.

Price says COVID 19 is their number one issue and in response have setup their own command center inside the hospital.

"We have activated our incident command to accommodate all of the things we need to rapidly implement and do to be able to respond effectively to this crisis," she said.

Incident command is often associated with a natural disaster and Price says the setup inside the hospital is modeled after that same response.

"It's very intense it's very structured… you can imagine coming out of a disaster that military style execution, it's very organized and everybody has a very specific job," Price said.

Like most hospitals, the staff at Denver Health is having to conserve their personal protective equipment, but past training for other infectious diseases like the Ebola scare a few years ago left them well prepared.

"The infection control preparedness every quarter… our staff were very knowledgeable about that knew how to use the materials and had the confidence when we started seeing COVID patients," she said.

And while Price says they are seeing more cases, it's happening at a rate they can handle for now.

"I think it's too early to tell whether or social distancing efforts are working but I think the early signs show we are seeing some progress," she said.

The hospital has been documenting their days and the fight against COVID-19 in a photo journal you can read more by clicking here.

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