Wisconsin's field hospital has remained mostly empty since opening last month, despite rising hospitalizations across the state, reports local Madison TV station News 3 Now.
The field hospital opened Oct. 14, when there were fewer than 900 hospitalizations statewide. As of Nov. 17, there were 2,277 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state, according to data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
The field hospital has 530 beds and can expand to more than 700, but only 23 patients were being treated at the facility as of Nov. 17.
Even though the current COVID-19 surge is straining hospitals' capacity, few patients are being transferred to the field hospital for several reasons, the station reported. For one, many patients are not comfortable going to the field hospital because they are unfamiliar with it, or it is far from home.
"When we say, 'Hey, we're busting at the seams; we've got patients who've got much more severe disease than you do, you would do great at the alternative care facility — are you OK if we transfer you there?' They say no," Jeff Pothof, MD, CMO of UW Health in Madison, told News 3 Now. "It puts us in a bit of a pickle as a health system."
Many patients are also too sick to be transferred from the hospital, physicians said.
"Transitioning patients to the field hospital would help lessen the capacity strain for patients who are closer to discharge or not as ill," a spokesperson for UnityPoint Health Meriter Hospital in Madison, told the station. "Right now, however, we’re seeing a growing number of patients who are very sick."
To view the full article, click here.