How do hospitals “increase bed capacity by 25%”?

Question

Here in New York, Gov. Cuomo is ordering hospitals to increase “managed bed capacity” by 25-50%. I’m wondering how exactly.

Some guesses:

Cancel elective surgery and turn all those recovery room beds into “managed beds”.

Assign nurses to ER beds and make people stay in the ER.

***edit: I was trying to make a joke with this one. Come to find out I’m not funny***
Tell women to stop having babies (not so sure about this one)
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Build actual new capacity in a tent outside in the parking lot.

We are creeping up in some critical capacity thresholds and it seems like a simple solution to just say “increase capacity”. How can we do it in on such short notice?

Thanks!

In: Other

Answer 1

I’ve seen some photos of temporary beds being placed in between the more commonly placed hospital beds with portable curtains placed in between.