Hospitals Increasingly Pressed For Space By Coronavirus: Humc Converts Cafeteria, Pediatric ER

Although the worst of the coronavirus pandemic isn’t expected in the U.S. for another two weeks, hospitals are already scrambling to find space to treat those infected.

Jerry DeMarco

03/30/2020 10:29 a.m.

Hackensack University Medical Center is converting its cafeteria into a unit for more than 70 patients, health care workers said Monday.

Nearly a dozen other units in the hospital have been converted for treating coronavirus patients – as has the pediatric emergency room, they said.

Pediatric emergency room patients were being moved to another building.

Room for COVID-19 patients is plaguing hospitals throughout the country.

Thousands upon thousands of beds are being added.

A field hospital that can hold 1,000 patients was opening Monday at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, while a mobile 68-bed hospital – essentially, a series of tents – was being prepared to open Tuesday in Central Park’s East Meadow.

U.S. Navy shops with 1,000 beds each were sent to New York City and Los Angeles.

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