Army Corps Strategy Evolves Into Using Convention Center Spaces for COVID-19 Care

USACE learned from Midwest successes that large spaces could be adapted

USACE替代护理合同 — 美国陆军工程兵团在签订的替代护理机构中共有14,732张床，或者在最终批准中，由各州建造。*Chart courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers*

USACE冠状病毒替代护理设施 — 美国陆军工程师兵团s has four standard designs for alternate care facilities in sports stadiums, convention centers, college dorms and hotels. To date, the Corps has completed assessments of 756 of 851 facilities that may be able to be used as alternate care facilities for either COVID-19 patients or to serve people who otherwise might need to be hospitalized during the pandemic.图表由美国陆军工程兵团提供

The TCF Center in Detroit Alternate Care Facility — 美国陆军工程兵团总司令托德·T·塞蒙特中将在密歇根州底特律的TCF中心现场参观和简短的州和城市领导人，介绍了底特律区的替代护理设施建设进度。*Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers*

底特律TCF中心转换的四核图表 — This "quad" chart shows the plan, progress, potential need for COVID-19 beds and the $11.5-million FEMA contract that funds the conversion of Detroit's TCF Center into an alternate care facility.图表由美国陆军工程兵团提供

April 4, 2020

Jeff Yoders

随着美国陆军工程兵团在4月初开始将会议中心和酒店转换为替代护理设施，以减轻对治疗Covid-19患者的当地医院的压力，最初的计划是照顾芝加哥等地方的COVID-19负面患者McCormick Place，纽约的Jacob K. Javits中心和底特律的TCF中心。在USACE，联邦紧急事务管理局和卫生与公共服务部的领导人看到USACE工程师可以在会议中心空间中做什么之后，该策略发生了变化。

"I was not convinced we could actually change the pressure in these large convention centers to a point that would actually achieve the desired results [of care for COVID-19 positive patients] we're looking for," says Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, chief of engineers and commanding general of the USACE at a Pentagon press conference April 3. "When I was in Detroit the other day with the governor [of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer] talking to the mechanical engineers, our guys and their guys have done a phenomenal job on some relatively minor changes."

The experience on the ground at the TCF Center and Chicago's McCormick Place convinced Semonite that care for COVID-19 positive patients is an option in what the USACE and FEMA call the convention center model for alternate care facilities. Semonite said the utility of modern convention centers allowed the unexpected shift to caring for more COVID-19 patients. Engineers on the ground found that no significant mechanical changes were needed in most cases. The changes needed were as simple as a couple of technicians going into a mechanical or HVAC control room to make modifications.

他说：“这就像拒绝房屋中的恒温器，而不是进去并重新校准整个机械室。”

Both McCormick Place and the TCF Center are already being converted to facilities that will care for low- to moderate-risk COVID-19 patients, and both will be ready for an expected influx of patients by April 24. Semonite showed a chart of the 9,693 beds the USACE is currently preparing in eight convention centers under nine different contracts across the nation. Of those, only 2,060 are now planned to be non-COVID-19 beds. The remaining 7,633 will be for treatment and convalescence of patients with the virus. There are nine more facilities with 5,039 beds where contracts with the USACE are currently pending and 15 more facilities that are still in an earlier phase of the process. Eight more with 5,643 beds are being built by states and municipalities through their own procurement processes with design assistance from the USACE.

"Any time you have a standard design, we want to continue to learn," Semonite says. "I've been on the ground in the last couple days in New York City to Chicago and Detroit. We have continued to see where our engineers who are actually doing this construction are being pretty innovative in how we site adapt that standard design to give more capability back out to the great doctors and nurses who are going to be taking care of these patients out there."

Semonite还强调，目前由USACE重新利用的八种设施以及其他国家和城市通过其采购流程建造的其他设施，都是根据冠状病毒工作组的建模数据的预期需求来计划的。副总统迈克·彭斯[R]。这些模型中的许多模型都绘制了与两个变量相比，与国家规范相比，在该地区的国家规范和该地区可能的床短缺的人数：指数级或更高的增长率。

值得关注

The USACE has received 750 requests for site assessments for alternate care facilities and has completed 673 to date. Semonite said USACE leadership is in communication with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis [R] and is looking at sites there and that the data and the demographics in Florida are a cause for concern.

Semonite说：“我想向每个社区（无论是大城市还是一个小镇）保证，如果您的市长需要让工程师兵团进来对现场进行评估，那么我们有能力这样做。”

Every alternate care facility is being built to the specifications of the medical plan that a mayor or governor wants to use and every site is being delivered with a different contractor. In the TCF Center in Detroit, for example, Semonite said the city asked the USACE to design a manifold system that put pipes in the ceiling to deliver oxygen down into every patient pod in a particular area.

He also stressed that working with Gov. Whitmer, Ill. Governor J.B. Pritzker [D] and local officials on the ground is what helped the USACE, FEMA and HHS shift its strategy.

他说：“我们学习的每个网站都会学习，我们将其重新融入我们的分析中。”“会议中心模式，特别是底特律和芝加哥，使我们说服了我们能够实现这一目标。”

ENR Midwest Editor and Associate Technology Editor Jeff Yoders has been writing about design and construction innovations for 16 years. He is a two-time Jesse H. Neal award winner and multiple ASBPE winner for his tech coverage. Jeff previously launched Building Design + Construction's building information modeling blog and wrote a geographic information systems column at CE News. He also wrote about materials prices, construction procurement and estimation for MetalMiner.com. He lives in Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, where the pace of innovation never leaves him without a story to chase.