As the coronavirus peak nears in many states and cities, it’s all hands on deck to find the necessary number of hospital beds for patients. In suburban Chicago, the Army Corps of Engineers, which is also building out McCormick Place into a 3,000-bed field hospital, is working to reopen a previously closed hospital.
Construction began earlier this week on Westlake Hospital, located in Melrose Park, Ill., and is expected to be ready to take patients by the end of April. The facility closed last year amid bankruptcy and a legal battle, but is still in good shape, physically, according to WGN. The project will still require a sort of recommissioning process of all the facility’s mechanical and electrical systems to ensure they’re in working order.
The facility has the ability to host a large intensive care unit for ventilated patients because it already has gas lines and negative pressure rooms. It’ll be able to house about 230 (and maybe as many as 350) covid patients when it’s operational.
This post was submitted by Greg Zimmerman, executive editor, Building Operating Management and FacilitiesNet.com.
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