SPRINGFIELD — As part of Baystate Medical Center’s increased effort to keep up with demands created by the coronavirus pandemic, a rapid response triage is being constructed outside the Emergency Department.
Baystate officials hope construction on the temporary facility will be completed by Monday, March 23. The facility is designed to handle between 30 and 40 patients.
“We don’t know what the demand is going to be. Instead of squeezing them inside, we will screen and treat them separately,” said Niels Rathlev, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine.
The triage will serve as a rapid, initial screening venue. Baystate medical staff will be able to identify those patients of most immediate need.
"Based on the screening symptons, we will take care of the sickest patients first,'' Rathlev said.
Rathlev said patients are already coming to the hospital for tests.
"We expected this would happen. We remember SARS and Ebola, and we have people specifically trained for this. We’re ramping up with dedicated staff, providers and physicians,'' he said.
“With trauma centers in Worcester and Boston, we’re all preparing for this. Places like the state of Washington and California are already ahead of us, so we are all sharing protocols.”
The temporary triage is being built in the covered valet drop-off and driveway area. The existing entry doors for the Adult and Pediatric Emergency Departments will continue to be the front doors for the Baystate Emergency Department.
Baystate’s normal operations are continuing, but that citizens are cooperating by not tying up staff with less urgent needs, Rathlev said.
Those in need of immediate attention should still seek help, he said. Less immediate or serious needs can be handled in other ways, or delayed for a reasonable time, while the hospital deals with the COVID-19 outbreak.
“People are listening (to requests from medical staff). Hopefully, people who require emergency care will still be coming. Others, hopefully, are talking to their primary care physicians," he said.
Protocols for the triage area are still being developed by Baystate staff and administration.
"We began with power washing, and have begun putting up walls. Our next work will be on protocols,'' Rathlev said.
The temporary triage will serve as a first-step process to identifying with potential coronavirus patients, and not as a full treatment facility. “We don’t know if we will do the testing here or inside,” Rathlev said.
While work on the temporary structure continued outside, Baystate maintained vigilant set of restrictions within its normal operations, including a limit of one visitor per in-patient.
Sign up for free text messages about important updates on coronavirus in Massachusetts
Related content:
- Baystate Health leadership advises public to be prudent, but don’t panic over COVID-19
- Coronavirus closures of Springfield city buildings called ‘abundance of caution
- Baystate Medical Center seeks to offer COVID-19 testing with same-day results