This shuttered NC hospital is part of the state’s plan to handle a coronavirus surge
The state is leasing part of a former hospital in the southern tier town of Hamlet to use for overflow patients if North Carolina’s hospitals reach capacity during the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Sandhills Regional Medical Center would be used for non-COVID-19, non-surgical patients who are not critically ill, according to the Division of Emergency Management. Taking these patients would give hospitals more room to treat people infected with coronavirus.
The hospital lease, approved by the Council of State on Tuesday, is the first piece of the state’s hospital overflow plan to be made public. Mike Sprayberry, director of the Division of Emergency Management, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the N.C. National Guard are assessing sites around the state that could be set up as temporary hospitals if needed.
“We’re working hard to plan and prepare for a medical surge, to have facilities ready when hospitals run out of beds,” Sprayberry said during a recent press briefing.
It’s not certain that those facilities will be needed. A team of researchers put together by the state Department of Health and Human Services said this week they think there’s a good chance the state’s hospitals will be able to handle the surge in coronavirus patients, as long as the state’s stay-at-home order remains in effect through May.
But state officials don’t want to take chances. As of Wednesday morning, 386 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized, up from 204 a week earlier, according to DHHS.
The Sandhills Regional Medical Center closed in 2017, and part of the building is being used by the health sciences program at Richmond Community College. The hospital has rooms for 49 patients but could take up to 60 or 65 by converting other spaces, said Keith Acree, spokesman for the Emergency Management Division.
Acree couldn’t say what kind of furniture or equipment remains in the building or how long it will take to get the hospital ready to accept patients. Under the lease agreement, the state must provide staff, supplies and equipment to operate the hospital.
The state is spending $240,000 to lease 80,000 square feet in the building for three months. The lease comes with optional month-to-month extensions through March 2021, if needed.
The building is owned by FirstHealth of the Carolinas, which acquired the hospital in late 2016 and closed it less than a year later. The nonprofit company operates seven clinics and four other hospitals in south-central North Carolina, including a hospital in nearby Rockingham.
FirstHealth and Richmond County have been using the parking lot of the former medical center for drive-thru coronavirus tests since last month.
