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USNS Comfort


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38 minutes ago, EscapeFromConnecticut said:

The Comfort looks like an extraordinary resource.

Unfortunately during this crisis, it sits in NY harbor as little more than an ongoing photo op:

 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

The article key points are buried near the end of the article. Seems some hospitals want to send COVID positive patients. The quote is something like this, if we can’t send COVID19 patients, who can we send. These NAVY floating hospitals are geared towards wounds suffered in battles. As the Chef has stated, it’s a poor design for infectious disease. 
 

Only negative COVID patients are allowed. The Governor/Mayor knew this going in. 

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5 minutes ago, EscapeFromConnecticut said:

The hospitals want to send COVID patients precisely because that's the surge they've been hit with. 
The governor/mayor aren't the problem here. 

So you believe the NAVY ships should be used for COVID patients?  If that’s the case, they certainly should be headed out to support our military who are having issues with COVID. 

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7 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

So you believe the NAVY ships should be used for COVID patients?  If that’s the case, they certainly should be headed out to support our military who are having issues with COVID. 

US DoD has been pretty clear that the deployment of the hospital ships is to relieve hospitals in NYC and LA of non-COVID-19 patient care.

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To date, the two hospital ships have received less than 20 patients, combined.  There is a list of 49 medical conditions that preclude a patient from being sent to the ships.  What NY hospital and public health people are saying is that with everyone staying in quarantine, there are less auto accidents, and less gunshot victims, the types of cases that the ships are designed to handle, and that they are accepting, so they are in fact not providing much "surge" capacity.  The Captain of one of the ships mentioned that if they were going to handle infectious cases, then they would need to restructure the ships to handle that mission.  No idea how long that "restructuring" would take.

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1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

The article key points are buried near the end of the article. Seems some hospitals want to send COVID positive patients. The quote is something like this, if we can’t send COVID19 patients, who can we send. These NAVY floating hospitals are geared towards wounds suffered in battles. As the Chef has stated, it’s a poor design for infectious disease. 
 

Only negative COVID patients are allowed. The Governor/Mayor knew this going in. 

 

Maybe a triage tent on the docks is a solution.

Stabilize the ER cases, test, sterilize, and then allow onboard

Edited by John&LaLa
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I'm sorry, but is it just me that's feeling like NYC & NY state Politicians keep crying wolf about all their medical supply shortages, medical emergencies, & warzone scenarios.  Federal & other municipal resources pour in, then they don't know what to do with it.

The news I get, from 2000 miles away, is NYC hospitals are overfilled with chaotic emergencies, with overflows into the hallways, then a 1000 bed floating hospital shows up, but no use for it...

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15 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

I'm sorry, but is it just me that's feeling like NYC & NY state Politicians keep crying wolf about all their medical supply shortages, medical emergencies, & warzone scenarios.  Federal & other municipal resources pour in, then they don't know what to do with it.

The news I get, from 2000 miles away, is NYC hospitals are overfilled with chaotic emergencies, with overflows into the hallways, then a 1000 bed floating hospital shows up, but no use for it...

The cases that are overflowing NYC hospitals are not the kind of cases that the Navy is allowing on the ships.  It is their conditions, not those of NYC, that have limited the patients that can use the ships.

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"Navy doesn’t intend to bring aboard anyone infected with coronavirus. The ships will instead be used to treat non-Covid patients, a Navy public affairs officer says. They’ll take on the folks who’ve suffered heart attacks, strokes, and broken legs so land-based hospitals can focus on the pandemic."

 

Above is what the Navy Ship in NY and LA is to support. No treatment of Covid patients was ever intended or implied.  Also it takes a lot to be admitted to a hospital just on general terms so admissions are generally for the very ill.  BUT I can see some potential problems with insurance covering admissions to a non participating "hospital" in their network. Admissions generally have to be pre-certified. People take pictures because it's an amazing ship and rarely seen here and nothing political about that.

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The nearly 3,000 bed hospital that they are building in the Javits Center should be a direct help for Covid-19 in NYC.  I doubt they would consider converting the Comfort to be handle Covid-19 cases unless the new Javits Center capability also is insufficient.

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The problem with treating infectious disease patients is that you have to have the capacity to isolate.  I read somewhere that the patient areas are open bay wards, so pulling a curtain between beds (if they even have them) does not constitute isolation.  And yes, I am old enough to have trained in open bay wards, been a patient in them, and worked in them.  EM

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2 hours ago, torpeedo said:

"Navy doesn’t intend to bring aboard anyone infected with coronavirus. The ships will instead be used to treat non-Covid patients, a Navy public affairs officer says. They’ll take on the folks who’ve suffered heart attacks, strokes, and broken legs so land-based hospitals can focus on the pandemic."

 

Above is what the Navy Ship in NY and LA is to support. No treatment of Covid patients was ever intended or implied.  Also it takes a lot to be admitted to a hospital just on general terms so admissions are generally for the very ill.  BUT I can see some potential problems with insurance covering admissions to a non participating "hospital" in their network. Admissions generally have to be pre-certified. People take pictures because it's an amazing ship and rarely seen here and nothing political about that.

Another problem, though it may tie into your insurance ideas, is that patients have to be admitted to a land hospital, be screened for Covid, and determined that they can be sent to the ships, before being transported to the ships.  They cannot directly accept patients.

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3 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

The nearly 3,000 bed hospital that they are building in the Javits Center should be a direct help for Covid-19 in NYC.  I doubt they would consider converting the Comfort to be handle Covid-19 cases unless the new Javits Center capability also is insufficient.

New York City’s Javits Center will accept coronavirus patients, Gov. Cuomo said Thursday, just days after beds reserved for people without COVID-19 became available there. Cuomo announced the move late Thursday after making a request to President Trump to allow the facility to treat people with coronavirus. “I asked President Trump this morning to consider the request and the urgency of the matter, and the President has just informed me that he granted New York’s request," Cuomo said in a written statement. "I thank the President for his cooperation in this pressing matter and his expeditious decision making. ”Trump said in a press briefing that Javits “is going to be staffed by the military and by the federal government.”

Edited by ONECRUISER
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5 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

I'm sorry, but is it just me that's feeling like NYC & NY state Politicians keep crying wolf about all their medical supply shortages, medical emergencies, & warzone scenarios.  Federal & other municipal resources pour in, then they don't know what to do with it.

The news I get, from 2000 miles away, is NYC hospitals are overfilled with chaotic emergencies, with overflows into the hallways, then a 1000 bed floating hospital shows up, but no use for it...

It is just you.

 

As stated, there are very few non-covid exposed patients, so not many that can utilize the ship, thus not being used.  And no, nobody is crying wolf.

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42 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Governor of NY requesting USNS be converted to COVID19. 

Not sure the Gov has any clue what it would take nor the timeline. All of this further ramping up of facilities/respirators seems to be coming after the peak - not sure how much it will help.

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1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Governor of NY requesting USNS be converted to COVID19. 
 

@chengkp75

 

18 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Not sure the Gov has any clue what it would take nor the timeline. All of this further ramping up of facilities/respirators seems to be coming after the peak - not sure how much it will help.

Yeah, I don't see this happening within a month or two, though could be wrong, if ship's systems are more up to date than I believe.  Most likely would involve mass gutting of the hospital wards and installing isolation areas and running cords all over the place to operate AC and HEPA filtration units.

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1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

 

Yeah, I don't see this happening within a month or two, though could be wrong, if ship's systems are more up to date than I believe.  Most likely would involve mass gutting of the hospital wards and installing isolation areas and running cords all over the place to operate AC and HEPA filtration units.

If it’s converted to handle COVID19, wouldn’t it be better served to support the military?  What about sick sailors and marines onboard the Roosevelt?  Don’t they deserve better?

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32 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Not sure the Gov has any clue what it would take nor the timeline. All of this further ramping up of facilities/respirators seems to be coming after the peak - not sure how much it will help.

 

A little early to declare NY past it's peak.

There are glimmers of hope that it might be hitting the peak sooner than expected. No idea how long it's going to stay at the peak. Could be a plateau.  I'd wait a week or so before declaring peak over.

 

Even if it's too late to help NY, at least the ship could be deployed to to next hot spot.....or be ready for wave 2 this fall. 

 

In my opinion.

 

9 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

If it’s converted to handle COVID19, wouldn’t it be better served to support the military?  What about sick sailors and marines onboard the Roosevelt?  Don’t they deserve better?

 

Could work on converting happen while sailing to Guam? 

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14 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

Even if it's too late to help NY, at least the ship could be deployed to to next hot spot.....or be ready for wave 2 this fall. 

The next likely spot will be NY again and converting something Javits Center is probably way easier/faster/cheaper than Comfort.

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34 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

If it’s converted to handle COVID19, wouldn’t it be better served to support the military?  What about sick sailors and marines onboard the Roosevelt?  Don’t they deserve better?

 

Seems that the former Roosevelt Captain has it now😪

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