Cookeville Regional Moves To One Floor For COVID

Cookeville Regional Medical Center has moved all its positive COVID-19 cases and those being tested for the virus to one floor.

CEO Paul Korth said the move helps the hospital staff follow the CDC’s best practices.

“We are trying to manage those in one location within the medical center to keep the spread down and keep those that could potentially be infected,” Korth said.

Korth said the hospital continues to evolve its procedures in an effort to keep ahead of COVID-19. Staff members meet daily to examine the current situation and predict any surge possibilities.

“We’ve been able to determine that we could handle up to about 65 or 70 patients in ICU capacity with ventilators, with ventilator treatment,” Korth said. “We could handle probably another close to 250. So well over 300 patients at one given time we could take care of at the medical center.”

Korth said the current hospital population stands at 130.

Health officials have long said the biggest challenge with COVID-19 would be a surge that would overwhelm local health care facilities. Korth said Cookeville Regional stands ready.

“We could do it very safely, we could do it very effectively and efficiently,” Korth said.