MIDLAND, Texas — Velcro-ed, staked and open.
Midland Memorial Hospital's 14-bed FEMA tent is up and running.
It's an extension of their emergency department.
The hospital has already used it to house about a dozen patients with low-level emergencies.
"We knew that heading into this winter season we were going to see a record number of cases, record number of population as we had been trending that way already, so in preparation for that we went ahead and ordered the tent," Kit Bredimus, chief nursing officer at MMH said.
And it's not what you may think, because there are no COVID-19 patients inside, at least for now.
"Our low acuity is going to be something that requires one or fewer interventions, so it could potentially be like a sprained ankle, minor stitches, maybe just an x-ray or a breathing treatment, abdominal pain," Bredimus said.
It's so that these patients aren't waiting in the hallways or lobby areas.
But the hospital is fully ready to shift gears and re-purpose the tent.
"We can put reverse isolation in the tent where it'll pull the air out, but we want to try to separate that population and we actually have 2 separate sides of the tent, so we can have a respiratory side if we need to and then a waiting side or well side," Bredimus said.
Chief nursing officer, Kit Bredimus said this isn't out of the realm of possibility.
As for now, anyone getting care in the ER who is coughing or has an oxygen requirement doesn't qualify for the tent.
Bredimus said they are hoping to demobilize the tent in March or April 2021, but they're assessing their needs day by day.