Here’s your first look at Fresno’s new emergency hospital to fight the coronavirus
The National Guard delivered and set up about 250 beds Wednesday at the exhibit hall in the Fresno convention center to assist regional hospitals to handle mounting cases of COVID-19.
For now, the exhibit hall will serve as a temporary storage unit. As needed, beds will be going to hospitals in Fresno and other central San Joaquin Valley counties, officials announced at a news conference Thursday.
The exhibit hall will also be used as a makeshift hospital to treat non-COVID-19 patients if and when coronavirus cases surge in the coming weeks.
Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes said Fresno and Clovis Community Regional Medical Centers had space and would be first to receive the federal beds.
“If they need stuff we have, it’s going there first,” he said. “In fact, they’re still in pretty good shape as of today.”
But the county continues to worry they lack the doctors to staff the beds locally.
“The staffing shortage is real,” said Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim public health officer.
Health officials have suggested as many as 100 of the new beds could be shipped away from Fresno because there aren’t enough medical professionals to monitor them. On Thursday, Vohra indicated that exact number remains uncertain as the situation develops.
When and where those beds will go hasn’t been determined.
“This is a fluid situation,” Mendes said. “Two weeks from now, we could be doing something completely different. I think the best-case scenario is we don’t use this facility.”
Besides hospitals, Vohra said the county is looking to pull staff from volunteer organizations, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s volunteer medical corps and the National Guard.
The leftover beds will not treat COVID-19 patients, but those who suffered strokes, heart attacks, pneumonia and other illnesses who no longer require intensive care. The idea is to protect low-maintenance patients from the infection.
But the disease “can sneak up into congregate settings,” Vohra said, so patients and staff will be screened for symptoms regularly.
If there are not enough non-COVID-19 patients to make efficient use of the facility, COVID-19 overflow patients may be housed there instead.
Similar field hospitals have been set up in Riverside and San Diego.
The 144th and 146th Fighter Wings of the California Air National Guard, based in Fresno, set up the beds on Wednesday. They will be in the Bay Area tomorrow to help staff Bay Area food banks.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 3:26 PM.