COVID-19 Notes From The Field: Hospital Converts Pediatric Wing To Negative-air Beds

The healthcare design industry is on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak, responding to myriad needs tied to the built environment to ensure patients can be tested and treated effectively.

Healthcare Design turned to its esteemed Editorial Advisory Board members and other leaders for an inside look at how they’re responding to the crisis. In this ongoing web series, we’ll share what we hear, as we hear it—the challenges you’re all up against and the solutions being put into place.

In these “Notes from the Field,” you’ll find an industry diving in to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly disseminating ideas to help others manage similar scenarios.

Sam Burnette, principal, ESa (Nashville)

A local hospital client took these steps after the first case presented at their ED two weeks ago:

• They tested the man in his car with an ED or lab clinician donned in PPE gear.
• He did test positive. This was not a quick lab test, either, so he was sent home and told to isolate himself and his family.
• The facilities director asked the mechanical engineer of record to look into converting the HVAC system of a 16-private-bed children’s wing into all negative pressure rooms. This would allow up to 16 patients needing hospital admissions to be isolated from the rest of the hospital.
• This children’s wing is stacked directly above a children’s ED expansion, which ESa designed. It’s physically and mechanically separate from the main hospital bed tower core. A connector to the main tower can be easily closed off.
• The design and HVAC work was done quickly to convert all patient rooms to negative air rooms, allowing these patients to be isolated from the rest of the patient and staff population.
• The hospital is also employing emergency precautions for protecting staff by suspending all visitors, introducing ED entrance screening, etc.
• This was also the first client I’ve been working with to cancel a design review meeting, approximately two weeks ago, as early precautions limited business visitor.

Since news of this converted wing was local knowledge, another client called one of our principals and asked him to share these details. I have shared this with two other current clients in Virginia and Florida, who are both looking into a similar conversion at their larger hospitals. It’s a compelling and proactive example one of our clients has successfully enacted.

If you have insight you’d like to share in this format, email Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Kovacs Silvis at jennifer.silvis@emeraldx.com.

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