Posted on 04/03/2020 12:03:57 PM PDT by Kaslin
Editor's Note: This piece was coauthored by Dan Lips.
Coming soon to a parking lot near you: a hospital. Federal and state officials are rushing to create temporary medical centers to help patients during the pandemic.
The White House recently announced that the federal government will partner with state and local governments to increase hospital capacity. One method is by directing the Army Corps of Engineers to construct temporary field hospitals.
The goal is to help hospitals in virus hot spots such as New York City and Seattle that are reportedly overflowing. Hospital staff in Florida are preparing for a surge in the coming weeks. Louisiana is preparing by placing more than a thousand beds in a New Orleans convention center.
And as more people are tested and determine they may be infected, many will be heading to the emergency room. A recent study by Johns Hopkins University warned that the U.S. has fewer than 100,000 ICU beds. Between 200,000 and 2.9 million people may require such care, depending on the pandemic’s severity and duration.
The public and private sectors will need to be creative to increase medical capacity, as demonstrated by efforts to turn convention centers and other public spaces into makeshift hospitals.
Policymakers shouldn’t overlook one other solution: repurposing existing facilities to increase medical care and quarantine capacity.
Federal and state policymakers should work together to identify potential surplus federal real property for immediate conversion. For years, federal auditors have said that federal property management is a “high risk area” because of the surplus facilities that Washington owns — and stands empty. But this past management presents an opportunity today.
As of 2015, the GAO reported that federal agencies had 7,000 surplus facilities and were struggling to keep track of their properties, which means that the amount of physical capital may be even larger.
The General Services Administration and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have significant discretion to transfer, sell or lease properties already — particularly to help improve public health needs. Now is the right moment for GSA and HHS to turn unused buildings over to state and local officials or even private hospitals for use during the pandemic.
A good place to start is by reviewing potential options. According to GSA data analyzed in a recent Mercatus Center report, federal agencies reported that 34 hospital buildings, 140 dormitories/barrack buildings, and 827 family housing units were “unutilized” as of FY 2018.
That year, federal agencies also reported that seven hospital buildings, 120 dormitories/barracks buildings, and 328 family housing units were “underutilized” at the time. State and local leaders should examine GSA data and see if any “unutilized” or “underutilized” properties would meet their current needs.
At the same time, state and local leaders should review their own unused properties that might be repurposed, including vacant public school buildings. Not the schools that are temporarily closed because of COVID-19, but buildings that have sat empty for years as enrollment levels in traditional districts have changed.
Pew Center research finds that urban districts around the country have a surplus of empty buildings. As of 2013, Detroit had 124 school properties on the market (at least 29 buildings are closed today), Cleveland and Kansas City had 26, and Chicago had 24. Philadelphia closed some 30 schools between 2010 and 2015, and reports indicate some of these sites remain empty.
n Oklahoma City, Oklahoma’s largest school district, one-third of all instructional space is currently unused. The Tucson, Ariz., school district has closed 20 schools over the last decade. Some of these buildings are now being held for “future use” or have no development planned.
In Arizona, lawmakers have adopted proposals that try to expedite district efforts to sell or lease school district facilities. In South Carolina, lawmakers already give charter schools the chance to bid on vacant district properties. State lawmakers should move quickly to revise ideas such as these and put empty school buildings to use immediately for medical needs.
The Coronavirus pandemic requires the public- and private-sector leaders to think creatively about how to address our current challenges. Repurposing unused public buildings for current public health needs is a great example of how the public and private sectors can work together during a crisis.
A deployed field hospital is probably better set up to provide medical care than a middle school classroom or a half empty office building (that shares an HVAC system with other tenants).
I’m not buying this. Army field hospitals are a known quantity and soliders have experience setting them up. An unknown building presents, well,unknowns, and all the procedures to setup a field hospital are thrown out. Sounds like a typical journalist that doesn’t have experience in doing anything other than typing on a keyboard.
If the weather is good a parking lot has lots of advantages. Its easy to clean, it has lots of ventilation, and its ease access. New York is using the middle of Central Park. Which can get muddy. But the outdoors is far better depending on the weather.
A close friend works for a scaffolding company here in WA state. He’s been laid off for weeks.
...........
He got called back to work on next Monday. To build scaffolding all the way around a 2 story motel somewhere.
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They are going to wrap the building with plastic and leave the scaffolding there.
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It’s for a Corona recovery center. The plastic and scaffolding prevents people from leaving or communicating through open windows.
The voice of reason.
I would add that any building used for China virus treatment will need thorough sterilization ($$) afterward. If (say) a hotel was used for that purpose, it’s likely that their business would take a huge hit ($$$) for several months to come afterward — regardless of whether or not the building is actually totally disease-free*. Hospitals are designed to allow for sterilization — the materials used in hotels aren’t the same.
I’m aware that the virus has a limited ‘life’ on surfaces — but, public perception will matter more.
This some silly shit. I think this virus has jumped the shark...
My son works for a company here in Tulsa that makes commercial HVAC equipment. They accepted an order for 44 units with 50-ton capacity last week that will ship by early next week to a temporary hospital in Stonybrook LI NY. These are huge units that will require at least 20 flatbed semis to move to LI. This is is an amazing response by the manufacturer.
Exactly. The renovation work that would need to be done to meet standards would be cost/time prohibitive. “Field” hospitals are a known quantity.
(that shares an HVAC system with other tenants).
ABSOLUTELY!! Some of these ‘journalist’ on both sides are just plain dumb.
If Army Corps of Engineers can be used to facilitate stopping Coronavirus, why can’t military funds also be used to finish the peoples' southern border wall to stop undocumented Democrats with diseases from crossing border into USA?
Federal Judge Clears the Way for Portion of Border Wall Lawsuit to Proceed
Coronavirus Is About To Explode In Mexico. It’s Time To Secure The Border
Send "Orange Man Bad" Democrats, RINOs and judges home in November!
MAGA, also KAGA! (Keep America Great Always!)
Supporting PDJT with a new patriot Congress that will promise to fully support his already excellent work for MAGA and stopping COVID-19 will effectively give fast-working Trump a third term in office imo.
Syrian refugees are a health hazard to US by bringing flesh-eating leishmaniasis disease
22 Percent of Resettled Refugees in Minnesota Test Positive for Tuberculosis
More than one-third of refugees in Vermont test positive for tuberculosis
CDC Official Says 'Thousands' May Have Arrived in US With Zika
Measles outbreak traced back to inmate at Arizona immigrant detention facility
Dozens screened after female employee at Clark County school dies of TB.
Tuberculosis, flu, infections rampant as the number of sick migrants surge at border
Nearly 200 immigrants in Texas detention facilities have mumps
More than 200 Georgia high school students called in to get tested for tuberculosis after [tr]
Border Patrol releasing thousands who were exposed to diseases like tuberculosis.....
400 Shadow Hills High students may have been exposed to tuberculosis
Feds: Nearly 900 Migrants with Mumps Disease Arrived in U.S. Last Year
“I won’t suffer the indignity of a parking lot MASH unit!”
Ok, go die somewhere else.
A mash unit is for war and treating bullet wounds basically, not treating a virus or anything else.
I can see where someone with a run-down third tier hotel would jump at the chance. But they would need to move out the furniture and store it (or replace it afterwards) to put in hospital furnishings - unless they just had large ballrooms to convert. Probably would want to rip out the carpeting and go to bare concrete as well.
I stayed at one of the old Statler hotels a few weeks before it was finally closed and torn down. Given its condition at the time and the future plans, it would have made a good candidate if the timing had coincided.
MASH units do not even exist in the Army any longer. It is surprising the technology that exist in field hospitals today. They won't be doing surgery on ChiCom flu patients. What is needed is infrastructure. A clean place to put patients, electricity, O2, medical equipment, etc. All the things you need if you are shot in combat, minus an OR. That's unless they are using the field hospitals for non-ChiCom Flu patients as well.
Good points! I must modify my previous comments to add: “unless you follow PAR35’s plans”.
Plus, trying to move that empty office building in Cleveland to NYC where it is needed...
Most of the old abandoned downtown office towers from the ‘80s crash have been re-purposed into residential. The empty malls have been/are being demolished.
But now that I think of it, the JCPenny headquarters up in Plano is more than half empty (and additional space is soon likely to be available) and there may be space at the old EDS/HP facility nearby....
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