Verde Valley Medical Center is licensed to have up to 99 beds for use. Normally, the hospital has 74 for use in daily operations, with its normal average daily census of patients using them in the low 50s.
However, with hospitals around the country preparing for the worst due to COVID-19, Northern Arizona Healthcare is seeking to expand the capacity at its Cottonwood location.
“Today at VVMC, we also have a lower number of patients than normal, with a census of 35 as of this morning,” Dr. Leon Pontikes, chief medical officer for VVMC, said on a teleconference call with reporters on Thursday. “Of those, four are COVID-positive patients, and there are approximately six more in the hospital that results are still pending on. Together with [Flagstaff Medical Center], and in accordance with the governor’s order to increase our bed capacity this month at VVMC, that means that by April 10 we will have the capacity of 109 beds, and by April 24, we’ll have a capacity of 139 beds.”
According to Pontikes, the hospital is expanding its space for those beds into areas of the hospital that do not normally house patents. The hospital is keeping COVID-19 patients in different sections of the hospital to avoid the spread of infection — and also experimenting with methods such as long IV feeders and different staffing organization — in order to allow staff to avoid infections as much as possible. Like most health care providers around the country, VVMC is facing a shortage of personal protective equipment for hospital staff.
The hospital has 44 ventilators in its possession, with Pontikes saying that just three are currently in use, leaving the hospital with a high amount of potential capacity in the case of an outbreak.
Flagstaff Medical Center is seeing a higher numbers of cases and has already had two members of its staff test positive for COVID-19, according to NAH CEO Florence Spyrow.
