Boulder Community Health braces for COVID-19 wave

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BOULDER — Boulder County public-health officials say the local hospital system is prepared to begin treating coronavirus patients, but Boulder Community Health’s success depends upon the ultimate severity of the outbreak and how diligent residents are in adopting spread-prevention techniques. 

“We’re in pretty incredible times at this point,” Boulder County Public Health executive director Jeff Zayach said during a Monday evening briefing with Boulder City Council members and city staff. “… I’ve never been in a scenario with such widespread impacts and challenging decisions that we have to make in order to control this disease.”

Boulder Community Health, which is not currently treating any COVID-19 cases, is in the process of implementing a plan to address the potential spread of the disease.

While perhaps not at this scale, “we have been through this a number of times,” BCH CEO Robert Vissers said of the response to potential outbreaks of infectious diseases.

When asked by Mayor Sam Weaver whether BCH has the capacity to treat COVID-19 patients should the disease continue to spread, Vissers said, “I believe we can, but it’s going to depend on where this peaks and how many sick people we have all at once.”

BCH will house positive cases, negative cases and those awaiting test results separately, Vissers said. “This will help preserve equipment and hopefully help protect others in the hospital.”

Additionally, BCH and partners have established a COVID-19 command center, expanded telehealth and nurse triage services, expanded intensive-care capacity and limited visitors to campus.

Should hospital leadership deem it necessary, there are areas — the Della Cava Family Medical Pavilion, for example  — within the BCH campus that can be converted away from their current noncritical functions into COVID-19 treatment rooms, Vissers said. 

Still, beds could prove hard to come by. Surgical bed space is at roughly 90 percent capacity, but thankfully, many of those cases are elective surgeries that can be delayed, Vissers said.  

In response to a potential bed shortfall, the hospital could set up triage areas in tents outside or in nearby parking garages.

The former BCH hospital facility at Alpine-Balsam, which is being prepped for deconstruction, does not have running water and is not suitable for treating patients in an emergency, Boulder city manager Jane Brautigam said.

BCH leaders don’t expect staffing to be an issue at this time, Vissers said. “Currently we are not experiencing any provider shortages.”

For now, Boulder County health leaders are not pushing for elected officials to require that people shelter in place.

Decisions made by local health and government officials have “significant impacts on our communities, and it’s extremely sad that we are at this point,” Zayach said. “… It’s going to have impacts on our businesses that aren’t going to be able to pay their employees.”

Zayach said he “would not recommend that we [issue a shelter in place order] at this time, we would support people who want to step ahead” and isolate themselves. 

“We know that there are impacts to residents when we do things like that,” he said of requiring people to remain indoors. “We’ve heard loud and clear from our municipalities that doing these kinds of measures will have significant impacts on our children, on families who can’t get the services they need. It’s a really difficult balance, and it’s been a really difficult decision making process.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correctly attribute a quote to Jeff Zayach rather than Robert Vissers. 

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