Company Designs COVID Care Facilities

A design firm has developed a prefabricated care facility that can be deployed to add hospital bed capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s called the STAAT MOD, which stands for Strategic, Temporary, Acuity-Adaptable Treatment. It was designed by HGA, an architecture and engineering design firm based in Minneapolis. HGA’s second largest office is located in Milwaukee with over 165 employees.

These prefabricated facilities can be set up as free standing care facilities or can be connected to existing hospitals and care facilities. They can also be assembled inside a large convention center.

As the country prepares for a surge in COVID-19 cases over the next month or so, additional hospital capacity is built out wherever possible. In Milwaukee County, the state, in partnership with Milwaukee County and the Army Corps of Engineers, is building an alternative care facility in the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center.

These new prefabricated care facilities were designed by HGA specifically to address the need for greater hospital capacity created by COVID-19.

According to a press release from HGA, these units provide hospital-level critical care with isolation rooms that meet the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines regarding airborne infectious diseases like the coronavirus. It also includes segregated work space to reduce healthcare workers contact with the virus.

The facilities come in three configurations. One is a two-room isolation unit. Another is an eight-bed critical care unit. And the third is a larger configuration with negative-pressure bays that have three beds each.

The modules are designed to connect to each other or existing hospital facilities so that capacity can be continuously updated as needs change. Prefabrication of the units allows for faster construction.

HGA partnered with The Boldt Company, a national contractor, as well as Tweet/Garot, Faith Technologies and IMEG on the project.

In a statement, Dave Kievet, Chief Operating Officer for The Boldt Company, said their production can meet aggressive schedules because they have standardized production with the modules that easily connect to each other and existing hospital facilities.