By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Regional Medical Center continues to ramp up for what they believe will be a peak in COVID-19 cases later this spring.
"There is worst case, best case and then there is a range in between," said Chuck Welch with the hospital. "We're planning for the worst case end of that range. If we had a 40-gallon gas tank, we're planning on filling that all the way up. We're even exploring opportunities to split ventilators, if we had to flex up with off-site areas for support. We truly are looking to maximize our here and now capacity and then what can we flex up beyond that."
Welch noted that the medical community is coming together in this crisis.
"We feel better and better every day about our readiness," Welch said. "We had a all clinical meeting this morning with our three pulmonologists, infectious disease, cardiology, everybody that could be impacted or needed to be impacted by that. I will speak to the city and the county, the outpouring of health care professionals willing to come in and work, many of them retired, if the Governor passes a reactivation licensure, they are ready tomorrow to come in and help."
Welch said they feel much better about manpower in case of a surge than they did a week ago. Any estimates on when cases might peak are still dependent on everyone continuing to practice at least as much social distancing as they have thus far.