Nashville hospitals prepare for spike in COVID-19 patients

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Hospitals around the country are doing what they can to treat a growing number of patients infected with COVID-19.

The nation’s top infectious disease doctors say we will see a spike in COVID-19 cases within the next two weeks.

Hospitals are bracing for the peak of the virus but they are not immune to it, either.

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 86 employees have tested positive. Some have recovered and are already back to work while others are self-isolating at home.

Officials would not say if the employees are healthcare workers.

A study from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates Tennessee will hit a peak of 18,979 hospital beds on April 26th. This is roughly 11,000 more beds than are currently available in the state.

Dr. Lisa Piercey with the Tennessee Health Department said as of right now, Tennessee is prepared.

“We’ve been watching them as a percentage and the in-patient bed capacity and the ICU bed capacity has been north of 30% that is even more than it is in a typical flu season right now, ventilators is upwards of 70% available, we’re in good shape right now,” explained Dr. Piercey.

Heading into what Metro Public Health officials said will be the peak of the virus, Dr. Alex Jahangir said he has “no idea” how many cases Nashville should expect.

“This is very much top of mind for us, and as we look at models and so forth we think about raising capacity for many hundreds if not more, the key though is, I apologize if I’m redundant, I keep saying this in any interview, it’s a supply and demand issue, we could have 200,000 extra beds put in Nashville, for people, but if a lot of people get infected at one time, a certain percent of people are going to need those beds, the best thing to do is flatten the curve, make sure we don’t have as many people infected at one time. At that point, hopefully we can meet whatever capacity we need,” said Dr. Jahangir.

Governor Bill Lee has issued a “Safer-at-Home” order encouraging people to stay at home, stay apart and close all business that cannot operate safely in hopes of flattening the curve and preserving hospital resources.