Alternate Care Facility
FEMA has the authority to provide funding for activities that eliminate or lessen immediate threats to lives, public health, or safety, such as operating an ACS facility.1 To determine whether work related to ACS warm sites is necessary to eliminate or lessen an immediate threat, FEMA may consider SLTT assessments of need based on:
alternate care facility
3 Such services include, but are not limited to linen and laundry services; food preparation and delivery; biomedical waste removal, including contaminated items such as personal protective equipment; perimeter fencing; contracted security guards; professional cleaning; and other related services. The toolkit and other ACS resources are available on the HHS website at -resources/111/covid-19-alternate-care-site-resources.
Located on the Ada South Campus, the Chickasaw Nation Medical Center Alternate Care Site provides COVID-19 services as well as space for training. This facility houses work stations, a central nurses station, COVID-19 overflow area and specimen lab. It also offers drive-thru COVID-19 testing to Chickasaw Nation employees, citizens and the community.
The state of Maryland and Adventist HealthCare have partnered to offer dedicated, high-quality care to help COVID-19 patients further regain their health at the Adventist HealthCare Takoma Park Alternate Care Site, formerly Washington Adventist Hospital. The Alternate Care Site features a safe and comfortable care environment that exceeds Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
An Alternate Care Site (ACS) is any building or structure not currently being used for health care that is temporarily converted or constructed for health care use during an urgent need in capacity to provide additional capability for an affected community, outside the walls of a health care facility.
An ACS includes spaces such as, but not limited to: hotels, arenas, barracks and dorms, tents, closed hospitals, and modular units. ACS does not include the conversion of non-patient care space within the walls of a current hospital converted for use during a surge event, nor does it include equipment stored and ready for deployment in a site outside of the walls of a current hospital. A health care facility is defined in 2012 NFPA 99 3.3.71.
This timely ASHE resource page covering emergency preparedness, infection control and more assists health care facilities managers in their efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by keeping the physical environment safe.
The Alternate Care Site (ACS)/Expanded Treatment Area (ETA) Planning Template [Word 9M] was developed by the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) to assist healthcare facilities and communities with their planning efforts for alternate care in response to medical surge.
This template is scalable in size for the number of beds, medical supplies, equipment and pharmaceuticals and can be adjusted based upon available resources or the medical surge emergency. It should be noted that the establishment of an ACS/ETA is a step of last resort to be used only after all other healthcare system resources have been exhausted.
The New Jersey Department of Health has developed an Alternate Care Planning Webinar that may be viewed at through the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) Connect website. This 22-minute webinar has been recorded by the New Jersey Department of Health - Public Health Infrastructure, Laboratories and Emergency Preparedness (PHILEP). The webinar will provide you with an overview of the ACS/ETA Planning Template which is a planning document that will ultimately help New Jersey respond to the next public health emergency, especially one that can stress the capacity of our healthcare facilities. For the best sound, please adjust the volume of your speakers.
If necessary, the Florissant site could accommodate more than 100 people and be used to house individuals who test positive for COVID-19 with mild or no symptoms as well as individuals exposed to COVID-19 and identified and referred by health care professionals as requiring treatment but not hospitalization.
Hospitals may also transfer recovering patients no longer in need of acute care but still requiring medical assistance. Criteria could be adjusted in consultation with health care professionals as the situation continues to develop.
Since Missouri is under a federal disaster declaration, FEMA will pay 75 percent of the costs associated with transforming the hotel into an alternate care site and/or caring for individuals housed there.
Medical professionals say if Missourians continue to practice recommended social distancing, handwashing, and sanitizing techniques, it will lessen the spread of COVID-19 and ease the pressure on hospitals, which would reduce the need for additional alternate care sites.
In addition to the 1,000+ patient beds, the ACF also includes nurses stations with hand washing sinks, temporary bathrooms and temporary shower facilities, portable laundry facilities, portable medical gas facilities, ice machines, portable medical waste facilities and new mechanical and electrical infrastructure to support all of the patient care facilities.
A public health emergency can strain the capacity of hospitals and other traditional venues for medical services. In such emergencies, it may be necessary to select alternate facilities for providing medical care. The report beginning below, and the related interactive computer tools, will help institutions and communities select alternate care facilities and determine which patients to send to them. The two new interactive tools are Disaster Alternate Care Facility Selection Tool and an ancillary tool, Alternate Care Facility Patient Selection Tool.
Disaster Alternate Care Facilities: Report and Interactive Tools was produced with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration and in collaboration with the Hospital Preparedness Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The report was developed under an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) contract to Denver Health (Contract No. 290-20-0600-020).
USACE Philadelphia District awarded a contract on April 7 to Cutting Edge Group, LLC to convert currently unused hospital space into a 250-bed facility. Construction began April 9, 2020 and was completed on May 3, 2020. The mission was part of a federal, state, and local response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
USACE Philadelphia District awarded a contract on April 13 to Sand Point Services, LLC to convert portions of the St. Francis Medical Center into a 37-bed facility. Construction began April 14, 2020 and was completed on April 27, 2020. The mission was part of a federal, state, and local response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The Philadelphia District has provided planning, engineering, contracting, and construction management support to the State of New Jersey and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to address possible medical facility shortages due to COVID-19. The mission is part of the ongoing nationwide federal, state and local effort to respond to the public health emergency.
"It was a major challenge to assess, design and manage the construction of Alternate Care Facilities with such a short turnaround," said USACE Philadelphia District Chief of Engineering Pete Tranchik. "From the teams who completed initial facility assessments, to our designers, our contract specialists, and our construction management team - everyone stepped up to the plate in our nation's time of need."
In late March 2020, the USACE Philadelphia District formed teams and conducted facility assessments in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Department of Public Health. They then provided the State with the completed assessment reports, which contained information on the possible conversion of existing buildings into alternate care facilities 041b061a72