IU Health Approaching Capacity At Bloomington Hospital

IU Health Bloomington says it is reactivating its daily incident command structure to keep an eye on available bed space as COVID-19 cases increase in Monroe County.

Officials say many of the hospital’s rooms have two patient beds with a privacy divider, which means COVID-19 patients cannot be in the same room with someone who doesn’t have the virus.

“Our capacity constraints have required us to transfer some patients to other hospitals within our region, and outside of our region,” IU Health Regional Director For Alignment and integration, Mary Ann Valenta said.

Valenta said the hospital is hiring more bedside caregivers and dialing back elective procedures to deal with the coronavirus surge.

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“This pandemic has reconfirmed the need for our new academic health center, as it is being built with private patient rooms, allowing us greater bed capacity,” Valenta said.

That hospital is scheduled to open in about a year.