Field hospital in West Allis not needed thus far
State has no plans to decommission facility built by Army Corps of Engineers
The field hospital built at a cost of more than $15 million on the state fairgrounds in West Allis to handle a potential overflow of COVID-19 patients was always likened to an insurance policy.
Known as an “alternative care facility,” the field hospital was built in roughly 10 days in early April by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when the pandemic was ravaging New York City and hospitals feared they would be overwhelmed by patients.
It was one of more than 30 set up throughout the country. Almost all of them were unneeded. Hospitals added beds and stopped doing elective procedures, freeing up additional beds. And stay-at-home orders slowed the spread of the virus.
That was the case in the Milwaukee area. But the field hospital at the Expo Center building still is seen as an insurance policy of sorts in case the state sees a surge in COVID-19 patients later this year.
“The Alternative Care Facility was built to serve the needs of the community not only in the beginning of the pandemic, but for future surges to come,” Ben Weston, a physician and medical director of the Milwaukee County/ City/Municipality COVID-19 Unified Emergency Operations Center, said in an email.
“While we were fortunate to be able to maintain our health system capacity in the first phase of the pandemic, it is impossible to predict the future.”
For now, the state has no plans to decommission the field hospital, according to the Department of Administration. The 2020 Wisconsin State Fair, originally planned for early August, was canceled due to the pandemic.
The field hospital, designed for 530 beds, cost $14.9 million to build out, said Patrick Bray, chief of public affairs for the Chicago District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
That doesn’t include the cost of equipment.
The State Emergency Operation Center still was determining the cost of equipping the field hospital, the Department of Administration said in an email. This is because many of the supplies were part of larger orders distributed throughout the state.
The state’s preparations for a potential surge in COVID-19 patients also included placing an order to buy 1,500 ventilators and paying a down payment of half of the roughly $30.1 million cost.
The building of the field hospital was paid for by federal funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the Department of Administration. Equipping it was paid for by a mix of federal and state funds.
An analysis by NPR of federal records estimated that building the field hospitals cost more than $660 million nationwide.
With the number of COVID-19 cases again on the upswing, particularly in cities such as Houston and Phoenix, the field hospitals still could be put to use. Infections and hospitalizations in states such as Texas, Arizona, California and Florida are hitting new highs. And several hospitals in Houston reportedly are nearing capacity.
The pandemic also could intensify in the fall and winter, when hospitals typically have fewer available beds because of an increase in patients from the seasonal flu.
That said, roughly half the people now testing positive for COVID-19 are in their 20s and 30s.
People in those age groups overall are at less risk of severe complications from the disease, John Raymond Sr., a physician and president and CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin, said in an email.
He does not expect the field hospital to be needed in July or August.
“In the initial stages of a strong surge of COVID-19 hospitalization, our health systems would be able to quickly and efficiently create internal surge capacity before needing to activate the ACF (alternative care facility),” Raymond said in the email.
The hope is that doesn’t happen. But Raymond, too, said that the Milwaukee area and the state is fortunate that the field hospital is available if needed.
The Wisconsin Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry initially recruited staff for the field hospital, according to the Department of Administration. The registry will be used again if needed.
Interview requests with the Department of Health Services or the Department of Administration were unsuccessful.
But the Department of Administration said in an email that when to decommission the field hospital will be determined by those two state departments as well as local emergency operations groups and other officials.