FMC: 70 ventilators, 18 in use
♦ Kurt Stuenkel tells the hospital boards they’re prepared to deal with a COVID-19 surge.
In mid-march, when statistical models predicted a wave of people needing hospitalization for COVID-19 complications, local healthcare providers were concerned they wouldn’t have enough supplies to cope.
Utilizing the time between the first cases reported in Georgia and now, Floyd Medical Center President and Chief Executive Officer Kurt Stuenkel told FMC board members he feels they’re prepared.
Stuenkel cited data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to calculate the growth projection for the surrounding counties and the number of patients they expect.
Predictions show a total of 3,143 patients would need care at all three hospitals — in Floyd County, Polk County and Cherokee County, Alabama — as well as urgent care facilities in Chattooga, Bartow and Gordon counties.
This number is derived from those who will have tested positive with COVID-19 as well as those awaiting test results, he told the Floyd Healthcare Management and Hospital Authority of Floyd County boards on Monday.
“We’re trying to stay current with what the models are saying and then we also look at our own statistics,” Stuenkel said.
He also said during the meeting that, over the last month, their staff and administrators have been preparing the facility for the expected influx of cases.
They’re still working to convert a parking deck on the hospital’s campus into a 200-bed emergency facility in case the surge is greater than the hospital’s capacity. With the new facility, FMC will be able to provide a total of 519 beds for patients in case of an emergency.
“We’ve got it, but I hope we never use it,” Stuenkel told the board. “We spent the money on it and we’re ready.”
FMC staff and administrators are also tracking the number of available ventilators for patients coming in to the hospital.
“We have 70 total ventilators in our inventory,” Stuenkel said. Right now, 18 ventilators are in use by patients at the hospital.
According to Stuenkel, administrators were originally worried about the number of ventilators they had on hand, but are now feeling good about the quantity.
“They were predicting we were going to be overwhelmed with patients being ventilated, so we’ve been tracking this,” he said.
They have also been tracking the amount of personal protective equipment needed for staff over the next months. They track the PPE by how fast staff goes through them and how many days worth of supplies they have.
Right now, they have around 120 days worth of N-95 masks and procedure masks. They also have 103 days worth of face shields and 15 days worth of isolation gowns.
“When we first started this, those numbers didn’t look like that ... All the folks in material management have done an amazing job of sourcing materials wherever they could find them,” Stuenkel said.