April 21, 2020

Sanford Health is making plans to fill nearly 900 beds on its main Sanford USD Medical Center campus if an anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients meets projections.

“We have a ton of flexibility to make changes very quickly based on what we see with cases and volumes,” said Andy Munce, vice president of operations at Sanford USD Medical Center.

“Our internal volume and modeling is really aligning with the city’s model, so that’s what we’ve been working off of.”

With the nearly 700 beds that will be available at Avera McKennan, the hospitals will have adequate capacity based on current projections.

At Sanford USD Medical Center, there currently is room for a couple hundred patients now. Volume is down because nonessential procedures have been stopped, Munce said.

Once those beds fill, the plan is to double up patients in existing space within the main towers at the hospital.

“After we get done doubling the rooms, we would overflow to the procedural areas that aren’t being used right now,” Munce said. “A lot of our pre- and post-area, from the surgical tower to the GI lab, we have the ability to put patients in. And we can further expand if we are surging to higher volumes into our anesthesia recovery room and our OR. As we surge into there, it will give us the ability to add 70 critical care beds, which is huge when you think about COVID.”

Surgical procedures then would move to the Sanford Heart Hospital.

The surgical tower and Sanford Children’s Hospital also could serve as overflow areas for COVID-19 patients.

“Fortunately, our pediatric census is very low, so we can overflow adult COVID patients there if we needed to do that within the castle,” Munce said. “We would be looking at an additional 60 beds there.”

The emergency room also has been significantly expanded, with nearby departments temporarily relocated, and it could grow further if needed, he said. Additionally, engineers have been evaluating facilities to make sure they can accommodate the amount of oxygen that could be needed to pump into rooms.

The entire plan allows the Sanford USD Medical Center campus to reach 880 beds. That includes more than 160 intensive care unit beds, which is more than triple what is normally available.

If more space is needed off the campus, Sanford has looked at repurposing the Fieldhouse and the Pentagon at the Sports Complex into patient areas for those at a lower acuity. The preference, though, would be to care for such patients virtually from their homes.

“We’re looking at home-monitoring trials, so it could be a routine check-in with your primary physician virtually … even a couple times a day, to keep people out of the hospital and enhance capacity.”

Sanford has been cross-training staff in areas that aren’t seeing as much volume so they can support the surge effort. So far, about 400 employees have gone through a classroom component to help treat COVID-19 patients, and they’re now starting to work alongside experienced nurses.

The hope is to cross-train or “upscale” about 1,200 employees in Sioux Falls.

“And we’ve set up a simulation lab on campus, so when they get done with their shift, they can run down and get half an hour or an hour practice going through these scenarios,” Munce said. “So if we do get to that level, they will have the confidence and skills to take care of those patients.”

Sanford employees and equipment also can be moved around the system’s footprint as demand requires, he said.

“We’re seeing the start of a surge in Sioux Falls, the other communities haven’t, and that will position us well to be sharing things such as ventilators and staff,” Munce said. “As we get more data, we get more confidence. We are seeing potentially less hospitalizations, and that’s great, but we’re planning on that higher number in case it does happen.”

Avera McKennan to convert space for 150 rooms ahead of COVID-19 surge