ODESSA, Texas — With a growing number of their beds occupied, Medical Center Hospital is repurposing an additional floor of their facility for COVID-19 treatment.
Medical Center Health System CEO Russell Tippin made the announcement Wednesday during an Odessa health press conference that included representatives from both MCH and Odessa Regional Medical Center.
The new floor is expected to be open for COVID-19 treatment by Thursday morning and will allow the hospital to utilize 28 extra beds.
Patients currently on this floor that are not being treated for COVID-19 will be moved to new locations.
According to an MCH report on Wednesday, MCH had 32 COVID-19 patients being treated with 10 in the critical care unit and three using ventilators.
Odessa Regional Medical Center CEO Stacey Brown also announced plans to open an additional hospital floor for COVID-19 treatment.
ORMC is currently not experiencing the same influx of COVID-related patient admissions that MCH is. The new floor would be opened as a proactive measure in the case that they do receive increased COVID patient admissions.
Along with the 28 added beds for COVID-19 treatment, MCH announced that they would immediately be suspending all elective surgeries requiring overnight hospital stays for at least a two week period. The suspension will be evaluated again after that time has passed.
MCH will also be operating under county diversion for at least one week, meaning that patients transferring from medical care facilities outside of Ector County will no longer be admitted to the hospital.
The hospital will continue to treat any patient that comes to their doors and plans to reevaluate the need for a county diversion status in one week.