Vancouver Convention Health Centre (COVID-19 Response): Planning, implementation, and four lessons learned

• Published in: American journal of disaster medicine Vol. 15; no. 2; p. 143
• Main Authors: Brown, D Ross, Hennecke, Peter, Nottebrock, Doug, Dhillon, Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2020
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus; British Columbia - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - therapy; COVID-19; Disaster Planning; Disease Outbreaks; Health Resources - supply & distribution; Hospital Bed Capacity; Hospital Planning; Humans; Pandemics - prevention & control; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Viral - therapy; Public Health; SARS-CoV-2; Surge Capacity - organization & administration; Surge Capacity - statistics & numerical data; British Columbia
• ISSN: 1932-149X
• DOI: 10.5055/ajdm.2020.0365

The Vancouver Convention Health Centre (VCHC) was rapidly set up as a part of the COVID-19 response in Brit-ish Columbia in order to create surge hospital capacity bed space. Multiple field hospitals were set up across the country in preparation for a possible surge and the VCHC utilized a non-traditional health care space and overlaid it with medical infrastructure. Maximum flexibility was required in planning for multiple patient populations and a novel four-box concept to plan for the requirements of the respective possible populations was developed. Key difficulties that needed to be overcome in planning COVID-19 medical care delivery in a non-traditional space included oxygen delivery, unknown future patient populations, and staffing. A clear recommendation can also now be made that healthcare provision should be considered during the design and build of new recreational or convention facilities in all communities.