Tents are being constructed in the lower deck of a parking garage outside of the University of Mississippi Medical Center to care for coronavirus patients with less severe symptoms
Hospitals across Mississippi are struggling to maintain a standard of care, and some hospitals are out of bed space. And the Department of Health has requested federal aid to help treat overflow patients.
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The medical center had previously deployed the field hospital in April of 2020, and the one being constructed now will have some minor changes.
Construction crews are setting up a field hospital in the parking deck outside of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s emergency room. This makeshift facility will treat coronavirus patients with less severe symptoms, as well as administer outpatient monoclonal antibody treatments. Jonathan Wilson, Chief Administrative Officer with the University of Mississippi Medical Center, says there will also be a federal team of around 30 personnel coming to alleviate staffing shortages.
“We anticipate that we will see a disaster medical assistance team, or DMAT, arrive here in the next day to two days," says Wilson. "We are deploying the state’s mobile field hospital so that we have a field hospital that we can then use the DMAT staff in to take care of patients.”
The mobile field hospital will be operated by the Department of Health and will assist hospitals that are overflowing with coronavirus patients.
Inside the Medical Center, experts say there continues to be a staffing shortage as their coronavirus hospitalization rates surpass demand from any other time during the pandemic. Associate Vice-Chancellor of Clinical Affairs Dr. Alan Jones says most patients are young and unvaccinated. And he says that higher transmission can also be seen in adolescents.
“All of our hospitals are full," says Dr. Jones. "This asset that is being deployed potentially will be able to take care of some older teenagers which may help some. But we are seeing a number, definitely more than we ever have before, of healthy children that are getting hospitalized with COVID.”
Hospital officials say their ability to care for patients has not reached a dire level yet. However, they say it may only be a matter of time unless people wear masks and get vaccinated.
