Crowding at Hartford-area hospitals due in part to COVID-19 infections prompted Hartford Healthcare today to start rebuilding a field hospital at the Connecticut Convention Center downtown.
The state Department of Public Health and the Connecticut National Guard are helping in the effort to set up a 600-bed hospital, to be available if needed. Construction starts today and is expected to continue through Saturday.
Although hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have declined slightly over the last week, area hospitals including St. Francis and Manchester Memorial are near or above 90% capacity for ICU beds, according to new data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The convention center field hospital is designed to care for patients who are not yet able to go home but who do not require ventilators or more intensive care. Treatments provided at the site will include IVs, oxygen and other therapies.
The facility will open for patients only if and when additional beds are needed. Hartford HealthCare doctors, nurses, therapists and patient support personnel will staff the hospital with support from other providers.
A field hospital was set up at the Hartford convention center and other sites statewide in April when COVID-19 hospitalizations were at their peak in the pandemic’s first surge, but it was never used and then dismantled.
Hartford HealthCare’s drive-through COVID-19 testing site in the Convention Center parking area will remain open during the construction of the field hospital. The test site at the Connecticut Convention Center opened in October due to growing demand for COVID-19 tests citywide.