Maryland hospital adds modular ICU units for virus

A Maryland hospital has opened an on-site modular building with more ICU beds to handle the potential spike in coronavirus cases as a stay at home orders are phased out and the threat of a second wave looms.

The President of Adventist Healthcare Fort Washington Medical Center, Eunmee Shim, said the state of Maryland offered to increase the hospital's capacity by providing three 10-bed surgical tents, and a 16-bed ICU modular unit.

There was already an inherent lack of capacity at hospitals around Prince George's country, according to Shim, who said the situation became more stressed once the pandemic started.

"These 16 beds are coming at a time when we need the most," Shim said. "Of course, there is a concern over a second wave especially as we lift stay at home order."

The coined STAAT Mod, meaning Strategic, Temporary, Acuity-Adaptable Treatment modular unit, was designed by the architectural firm HGA and prefabricated and installed by The Boldt Company as fully functional, isolated ICU units to treat COVID-19 and other critically ill patients.

Kurt Spiering, Principal and National Healthcare Sector Leader for HGA, said the goal of the design was to make it versatile and safe for the coronavirus patients and the caregivers on the frontline.

"We wanted the last COVID patient to be treated as well as the first this is a great accomplishment for us. In viewing that facility we know that will happen," Spiering said. "I think the other thing is the caregivers, as we work with these people throughout the years, they become our friends and so it's personal to us that we put them in a safe environment."

As the building team saw other makeshift COVID-19 treatment facilities sprout up in convention centers and hospital parking lots, Spiering said they wanted to supply an airborne isolation room environment for COVID-19 patients who require ventilators and other specialty equipment.

"So, we wanted to meet that need so that with the sickest of the sick that could be treated in you know the high clinical quality, but to be able to do it quickly. To be able to do it affordably, and to be able to send it nearly anywhere where that crisis could break out anywhere in the country," Spiering said.

Ben Bruns, the Executive Vice President of Boldt, said Maryland purchased a total of 64 semi-permanent ICU beds which can be transported and installed at other healthcare facilities around the state.

"It's something that can be laid out in 8, 16, or larger configurations, 24, 32 et cetera, and it really is designed to be infinitely expandable," Bruns said. "You sure hope you don't have to do that in any way shape or form, but it's a true rapid response and very flexible."

Shim said they're still under a state of emergency and are continuing to restrict visitation and other procedures at the hospital but said the new ICU units are a big step in the right direction.

"This trailer unit is actually going to afford us to be able to resume our elective procedures, keeping our post-surgical patients in the beds at the hospital, and then all COVID-related patients in the trailer unit," Shim said. "So, it is pretty crucial to reopening of the hospital to the community."

Shim said Adventist Healthcare is hoping to convince the state of Maryland to keep their 16 modular ICU beds active past the pandemic to act as a 'bridge' for their plan of building a new hospital at the Fort Washington location.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

(Representative Image)