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Facility would be utilized to address hospital capacity issues to provide low-level medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic
4/29/2020 10:57:15 AM
[ST. PAUL, MN] — Governor Tim Walz and the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) have finalized a lease agreement for an alternate care site in Roseville. Presbyterian Homes-Langton Place has been identified to be an appropriate setting to provide low-level medical care or monitoring, should it ever be needed during the COVID-19 pandemic to address hospital capacity issues. The facility will not be designed for walk-up medical care, nor as a COVID-19 treatment facility.
The Governor tasked the Minnesota Department of Public Safety division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DPS-HSEM) to partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Minnesota National Guard, and the Minnesota Department of Health in establishing a working group to identify potential alternate care site locations.
“Minnesotans deserve as much peace of mind as we can give them during this pandemic, and signing this lease is another way we’ve made good use of the time Minnesotans have bought us by staying home and slowing the spread of COVID-19,” said Governor Walz. “By setting up this alternate care site in Roseville, our team is making sure that—should it ever be needed—our hospitals have the capacity they need to treat all patients who need care.”
“Every day in the State Emergency Operations Center, we are working to prepare Minnesota for the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Joe Kelly, director of DPS-HSEM. “Should we ever reach the point when we need extra space in our hospitals, this alternate care site will be ready for Minnesotans.”
The site will only be used if hospitals need to make space for critical care. The Minnesota Department of Health is tracking hospital surge capacities daily and posting that data online to the COVID-19 Response and Preparation Capacity Dashboard. The Hospital Surge Capacity Dashboard details the current capacity, the beds that can be ready in 24-72 hours, the ventilator surge capacity, and the ventilators on back order.
Expansion capacity within hospitals will be used first. Should those capacities be reached, hospitals would work with patients to identify those who could be safely transferred to alternate care sites in order to free up hospital space to treat COVID-19 patients. The transferred patients would then continue their treatment or recovery in the alternate care site.
“Patients belong in a hospital as much as possible for as long as possible to keep people comfortable,” said State Healthcare Coordination Center (SHCC) Manager Dr. John Hick. “If the alternate care site is needed, it will mirror hospital spaces, which is why we prioritized sites like Presbyterian Homes-Langton Place, which has some of this infrastructure already in place, over larger open-space community facilities.”
The alternate care site work group is a part of the SHCC. The SHCC is working within the SEOC and is using guidance materials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to tailor the locations for Minnesota’s regionally specific needs. If an alternate care site is needed, requirements for equipping, staffing, and securing the sites will be determined by the SHCC.
