Local centers eyed as temporary COVID-19 hospitals

Army-Navy Hospital potential alternate care site

A June 2019 file photo of the main building of the former Army and Navy General Hospital. - Photo by Grace Brown of The Sentinel-Record
A June 2019 file photo of the main building of the former Army and Navy General Hospital. - Photo by Grace Brown of The Sentinel-Record

The state said Friday that the former Army and Navy General Hospital on Reserve Street is on the list of buildings being considered as alternate care sites, or temporary hospitals.

Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, the state agency responsible for the building, had planned to return the property to the federal government July 1 after ending its residential job training program for young adults with disabilities last year. The program had been housed at the 200,000-square-foot building and 20-acre campus since 1960.

The deed conveying the property from the U.S. Department of Defense to the state in 1960 stipulates it will revert to federal control if it's not used for public health or educational purposes. ARS said earlier this month that it was no longer seeking a tenant to assume occupancy prior to the transition, explaining that it had turned over the tenant search to The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Since then, states have been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to identify sites that could be converted into hospitals as the COVID-19 outbreak threatens to overwhelm the health care system. Twenty cases had been reported in Garland County as of Friday.

The state Department of Transformation and Shared Services Building Authority Division said Friday that it included the Reserve Street location on the list submitted to the Department of Health.

"Our office has not yet been notified of facilities that have made the shortlist for assessment," Alex Johnston, chief communications director for the Department of Transformation and Shared Services, said in an email Friday. "No decision has been made on facilities.

"This is a broad look at buildings across the state, including both state and privately owned facilities. We are still in the information-gathering phase and no decisions have been made."

The Health Department's modeling predicts the COVID-19 outbreak will put 700 people in hospitals by mid-April. The agency's secretary, Dr. Nathaniel Smith, said at the state's Friday briefing that recently closed hospitals that could quickly be reopened are the best candidates to temporarily house noncritical patients.

"We're looking at all options, particularly state-owned buildings that can be quickly converted, probably for low-acuity patients," Smith said.

FEMA has assigned the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to oversee the conversion of six locations into alternate care sites nationwide, according to a news release issued Friday.

Local on 03/28/2020

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