COVID-19 Surge Capacity Solutions: Our Experience of Converting a Concert Hall into a Temporary Hospital for Mild and Moderate COVID-19 Patients

Abstract

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has stressed the health-care system in Italy as well as around the world, with hospitals implementing their surge capacity to increase the number of available beds for patients positive to the virus. At the end of March, the Piemonte (Northern Italy) Government decided to build a temporary rapid-assembly emergency hospital for the treatment of mild and moderate COVID-19 patients, converting an existing concert hall in the city of Turin. The decision was prompted not only by the urgent need of hospital beds, but also by a forward-looking approach for the months immediately after the emergency, when it will be essential for conventional hospitals to return to a normal configuration. This paper documents the temporary hospital project, describing the site, the layout and the equipment, the idea behind structural choices and the staff involved. The aim of the work is to share the experience and to provide some practical recommendations to other professionals who are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.

COVID-19 on the Ground: Managing the Heritage Sites of a Pandemic

“…Some used existing facilities such as naval hospital ships, [44] or acquired horizontally stratified motels to serve as overflow isolation wards [45]. Others rapidly erected entire hospital complexes (below), while most others established and readied temporary field hospitals in community centers/halls [46], exhibition and convention centers [47][48][49], concert halls [50] and even car ferries [51]. Examples of these come from countries as diverse as Italy [50], El Salvador [49] and Brazil [52].…”

“…Others rapidly erected entire hospital complexes (below), while most others established and readied temporary field hospitals in community centers/halls [46], exhibition and convention centers [47][48][49], concert halls [50] and even car ferries [51]. Examples of these come from countries as diverse as Italy [50], El Salvador [49] and Brazil [52]. Exhibition centers were also repurposed as large-scale, drive through COVID testing stations (Figure 1) while vacant supermarkets served as vaccination centers (Figure 2).…”

“…This then implies the cultural heritage significance of these ephemeral sites rests in their documentation. Some evaluative work, considering the operation of emergency COVID-19 hospitals, has been published from China [119,120], Italy [50] and Spain [48]. While not adequate in terms of cultural heritage assessment, such studies provide contextual information on selected structures.…”

Alternate Care Sites for COVID-19 Patients: Experience from the H144 Hospital of the Health Service of the Principality of Asturias, Spain

“…5 Different types of structures were designed world-wide with different approaches regarding location (existing building or open areas) and design. 6,7 The H144 Hospital of the Health Service of the Principality of Asturias, Spain (Sespa) was built in the central pavilion of an exhibition hall. Gregg S. Meyer has described three interesting models of care in relation to temporary COVID-19 hospitals: 8 (1) Acute Care Model, complex by focusing on intensive care, requiring highly specialized staff that could be needed from other intensive care units (ICUs); (2) Hospital Care Model, with a certain capacity for intensive care, wide availability of disciplines, and that tend to support an inadequate hospital network, also requiring a large number of staff in terms of their profiles; and (3) Non-Acute Care Model, for mild or recovering patients from other hospitals, allowing them to focus on moderate to severe COVID-19 patients and to increase their capacity to care for non-COVID-19 patients.…”

Financial Meltdown in “Swing Hospitals” during the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…The government of China rapidly built a 1,000- bed hospital, Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, in under 10 days, and immediately began caring for COVID-19 patients (Zhu et al, 2020). Following this approach, many countries such as the UK, Italy, and the US have also established temporary hospitals (Sacchetto et al, 2020).…”