Emergency hospital leaving DelCo

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on April 14, 2020

The emergency field hospital set up at The Glen Mills School two weeks ago is moving to East Stroudsburg where there is less hospital capacity than in Delaware County.

With more COVID-19 patients recovering at home and more beds and equipment allocated to hospitals, the emergency field hospital at The Glen Mills School is moving upstate.

National Guard personnel began began bringing equipment for the field hospital in the school's gymnasium on March 28, and it was ready for use in two days, but it wasn't needed. However, 100 of the 300 beds at the gym will remain in case they are needed.

Tim Boyce, the director of Emergency Services for Delaware County, said, "We're putting the toys back in the box," while briefing reporters as military personnel packed up some equipment at the school before taking the items to East Stroudsburg. "They're going to an area that doesn't have the hospital capacity that we do."

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency intended the field hospital for low-acuity, non-COVID-19 related patients who needed hospital care so that hospitals would have room to treat patients with the Coronavirus. There was also an anticipated surge of COVID cases that didn't materialize as anticipated.

"The surge has always been a fluid number," Boyce said. "We do have more and more cases in Delaware County, and that will continue to grow. What's changed in the last couple of weeks is how we care for patients. Not everyone with COVID is now being hospitalized, so we've kind of decreased the surge at hospitals."

He also said that not only are more beds available in hospitals because of patients recovering at home, but the hospitals have added more critical care capacity in terms of beds and ventilators.

"We have more beds available; we have more ICU beds available," Boyce added. "We want to make sure the severely ill people can be cared for in hospitals, rather than a shelter."

A press release issued late Monday, quoted Boyce saying, "While we can't become lax in our efforts to stay at home and follow the guidance on social distancing and wearing masks, we can be reassured by knowing that our local hospitals are prepared."

He repeated in interviews that masks and distancing are helping to flatten the curve and that the original surge dates of April 18-20 were based on "dynamic modeling out of New York."

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.