Raleigh’s UNC Rex Hospital is creating a special ICU for coronavirus patients
At least two of the more than 70 people confirmed to be carrying coronavirus in North Carolina were being hospitalized on Wednesday, and hospitals across the state are preparing for that number to go up significantly in the days and weeks ahead.
At Rex Hospital, that means creating a special intensive care unit to treat COVID-19 patients. Workers are renovating and stocking a former cardio-thoracic ICU and installing a new air handling system so the rooms will have negative pressure, a slight vacuum that means nothing from the unit will spread to the rest of the hospital.
Rex hasn’t admitted any COVID-19 patients yet, said Linda Butler, the hospital’s chief medical officer. If and when it does, the first three would be treated in pressurized rooms in existing ICUs.
But over three, Rex would open what it calls the Special Respiratory Isolation Unit, or SRIU, where it will be able to treat 16 coronavirus patients in eight rooms with ventilators and other specialized equipment, Butler said.
Isolating these patients will help prevent other patients and staff at Rex from being exposed to coronavirus, Butler said, and also conserve supplies, such as gowns and masks, that staff won’t have to discard as long as they remain in the ICU.
If more than 16 COVID-19 patients arrive at Rex, the hospital will have as many as 67 other beds set aside for overflow from the SRIU. Like other hospitals in the state, Rex has begun postponing non-essential surgeries and other procedures and reducing its patient count to make rooms available for coronavirus patients. That process would accelerate, Butler said.
“We have already designated other units that we would open, because we’d be no longer doing elective surgeries at that point,” she said. “We would really change our operations, and we’d have two other floors that we’d have for patients.”
Creating the SRIU for coronavirus patients
The SRIU should be ready for patients Monday, perhaps sooner if needed, Butler said. On Wednesday, it was busy with construction workers, some of whom were building a wall to create a new room where staff could change in and out of scrubs, gloves and masks as they leave or arrive, said Arthur Blue, director of facilities at Rex.
But the most important work is happening out of sight, above the ceiling and behind walls, where the air handling system is being overhauled, Blue said.
“We’ve completely sanitized it,” he said. “We go in and clean that air handler, replace the filters. We install ultraviolet lights to preclude anything biological passing through that air handler and being in the air supply here.”
Creating a new ICU unit is one of the more visible steps Rex is taking to make sure it has the space, supplies and staff to handle coronavirus, Butler said. If the outbreak gets really bad, she said, the hospital would be prepared to make more of its 439 beds available for COVID-19 patients.
“We’re prepared for 80 plus people to come here,” she said. “And if it’s more than 80, we will flex to take care of that. It’s what we do.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Raleigh’s UNC Rex Hospital is creating a special ICU for coronavirus patients."
