CoxHealth plans to expand its COVID-19 ICU unit by 33 beds. The unit, on the fifth floor of Cox South in Springfield, cares for the sickest of the COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized at CoxHealth.
Cox CEO Steve Edwards said in a news release he hopes they won’t need to use the extra beds, but they want to be ready in case they do.
Work on the approximately $1 million project will begin soon. Remaining shell space on the fifth floor will be transformed into a medical unit. According to CoxHealth officials, construction will start after another project on another unit in the hospital is complete. That unit could be used initially for COVID-19 patients.
CoxHealth also announced Monday that it’s expanding at-home care for COVID-19 patients. According to the health system, the initiative will allow health professionals to care for patients at home who are convalescing from COVID-19.
Patients will be transported home by CoxHealth’s Advance Practice Paramedics team, “which will ensure that all appropriate monitoring equipment is installed,” the news release states. Physicians in the Cox Family Medicine Residency, as well as others at the hospital, will monitor patients’ progress remotely, and adjust care if needed.
CoxHealth at Home, CoxHealth’s home health agency, will coordinate staff visits, which will occur at least twice per day, according to the health system. And they will provide remote patient monitoring, equipment, supplies, IVs and medications.
The move was made to increase capacity for COVID-19 patients at CoxHealth’s hospitals.
