RAPID CITY, S.D. – Hoping for a best case scenario, but planning for a worst-case, Monument Health is working on capacity planning in the event the COVID-19 floods the area’s hospitals in the weeks ahead.
It’s possible the peak may not happen until late spring or early summer.
Chief Performance Officer Nicole Kerkenbush says the hospital in South Dakota’s second largest city is using models set forth by state and national health officials in an attempt to predict the number of potential patients they could see if the virus spread becomes worse.
Kerkenbush says the model numbers they use determine the amount of beds, staff, equipment and supplies that will be needed in order to take care of an influx of COVID-19 patients.
In the event of an overflow, the hospital is working on analyzing places where additional beds could be added.
She says they are building out what was currently shelled space during construction efforts and although these spaces were not intended for this purpose, they will work, given the need, to house additional patients.
She says such space would allow for an additional 800 beds, not just in Rapid City, but other Monument Hospitals in the Black Hills as well.
Kerkenbush explained these shelled spaces at the hospital in Rapid City would be in the emergency department, on the 2nd floor, and above the heart and vascular units. It would provide an additional 172 patient beds.
