Grand Valley State University and Spectrum Health joined up this week to enact emergency preparedness plans they laid out 10 years ago.
Spectrum Health is preparing to use the university’s Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences as additional medical space, if needed, to house patients seeking treatment for COVID-19.
At full capacity, the space will have 250 beds, said Mark Van Dyke, Spectrum Health’s business assurance manager.
“They have turned over the keys to us,” Van Dyke said.
The facility is particularly suited to those patients who don’t require emergency care but still need medical treatment. It won’t serve as an intensive care unit or emergency department.
The Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences—just one block from Spectrum Health’s main hospital in downtown Grand Rapids—is home to the university’s health curriculum, including the Kirkhof College of Nursing and the College of Health Professions.
That said, it already has the infrastructure in place to quickly serve as an off-site hospital, including IT, nutritional services and environmental services.
“This pandemic plan to use this space has been around since … this building was built,” Van Dyke said. “We have an established relationship with Grand Valley to set up this hospital.”
Spectrum Health will be able to use existing medical equipment at the location, as well as supplementing it with additional beds and equipment sent from the State of Michigan, Van Dyke said.
On Thursday, Spectrum Health received two semi-trailers full of medical supplies and cots.
“This will be a fully functioning health care facility by the end of the week,” Van Dyke said, emphasizing that Spectrum Health is not currently using the space, but instead preparing so they’re ready should they have need of the additional beds.
And this is why I became a nurse 49 years ago. A nurse could always make it happen somehow, someway. Blessings to all those working in the hospitals, first responders, lab workers and all who work in a setting considered necessary. Prayers being sent to all. Especially to a special nurse who is in our family~Sue (Corbin) Dodde.
Thank You to all of the medical staff who are putting people first, caring enough to put their own lives in harms way to save a strangers life. God Bless You all xoxo
I could not, as a member of Spectrum’s lab team and an alum of GVSU, be prouder of my community than I am at hearing this. Both us Lakers and us Spectrum COVID Warriors can and will be prepared for this pandemic should it get even worse. Just one more way of showing how selfless Lakers are, and how dedicated we are to helping our community in this time of need.
Thank you to all the GVSU nursing students who are staying home or heading into a job early because of this. And thank you to the community for staying home and staying safe. You’re helping flatten the curve more than you think! <3