DeSantis announces 450-bed coronavirus hospital at Miami Beach Convention Center
South Beach’s hulking, 1.4 million-square-foot convention center will sit empty no longer.
The Miami Beach Convention Center, which saw all of its business dry up amid event cancellations during the coronavirus pandemic, will be retrofitted by a federal contractor to house patients if area hospitals become overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. Just two months ago, the center hosted about 80,000 football fans at the NFL-sponsored Super Bowl Experience.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded the $22.5 million building contract to Alabama-based Robins & Morton Group, which is expected to complete the new “alternative care facility” by April 27.
Miami Beach leaders were joined Wednesday by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to announce the new hospital at the convention center.
There will be 400 beds and 50 intensive-care beds for COVID-19 patients, but it can expanded. .
DeSantis said 184 members of the Florida National Guard medical staff, including 10 doctors, will be available to care for patients at the hospital.
“We don’t know what a surge may bring, but we have to prepare for that,” DeSantis said.
Dozens of workers began putting together hospital beds at 6 a.m. Wednesday, and the crews will work staggered 12-hour shifts as the hospital is built on an “expedited” timeline.
While the Department of Defense had earlier said the construction was to be completed by April 27, Army Corps representatives said Wednesday the hospital would be able to bring in patients as soon as April 21.
The 250,000-square-foot hospital will care exclusively for coronavirus patients, the Corps said.
The 400 general care pods will be 10 feet by 10 feet. The 50 negative-pressure intensive care pods will be 15 feet by 15 feet but may house two patients each, said Nestor Rivera, administrative contracting officer with the Army Corps
The capabilities may double — 900 beds, 500,000 square feet — if more resources are needed, the Corps said.
“People talk about flattening the curve so hospital systems can cope,” he said. “We looked to make a way to expand hospital capacity.
“What you’re seeing is that we’re all doing what we can to be prepared.”
In 2018, the convention center completed a $620 million renovation that added 263,000 square feet of space to the building. The facility’s total footprint now stands at 1.43 million square feet. Its exhibition space is 500,000 square feet.
“While I hope it’s not needed and I’m optimistic we will not have a surge, hope and optimism are not organizing principles,” Mayor Dan Gelber told the Miami Herald on Wednesday. “We have to prepare for the worst and pray for the best.”
Other field hospitals
The field hospital is the first to be contracted in Florida by the Army Corps of Engineers, but not the first of its kind in the state. In mid-March, Florida health officials announced they were deploying three other field hospitals, one to be staged in Orlando, one at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and a third in Ocala.
More recently, a field hospital at the county fairgrounds in Tamiami Park was unveiled where the Youth Fair would have been held if it hadn’t been canceled last month. The hospital was built by a Kentucky company, Emergency Disaster Services, under state contract.
State Rep. Michael Grieco, who represents Miami Beach and the surrounding municipalities, said he’d rather be “prepared for the worst,” but is still unclear how much bed availability is needed in the county.
He said if there were more widespread, regional testing he would “feel more comfortable. “
“Countywide, we are in good shape when it comes to bed availability but I would rather us be prepared for the worst,” he said. “We’ve got the space.”
The current hospital bed capacity in Miami-Dade County was 40.1% Wednesday, a dip from 43% capacity on Tuesday night, according to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
Miami Beach had 453 cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday morning.
“The numbers here are not ideal,” Grieco said. “I think it’s a smart move to go ahead and make these moves as we get closer to capacity in some hospitals. ... I think that the Beach has done a good job as a municipality in being ahead of the game.”
The White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, said in a press conference on Saturday that the country’s current hot spots — Detroit, New York and Louisiana — could experience peaks of coronavirus cases this week but that the “next two weeks are extraordinarily important” in the nation’s fight against the virus.
Florida’s new coronavirus infections may peak on April 21 — with as many as 242 people dying a day, according to projections from a group of scientists at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.
Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola told the Miami Herald that the new facility could open up beds at area hospitals currently filled by coronavirus patients.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” he said. “In an abundance of caution, we want to be prepared. As of today, looking at the data, I don’t think we’re going to need it.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 1:31 PM.
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