On a bad day, there can be up to 20 people in the emergency room at Kingston General Hospital waiting for a bed at the hospital to become available.

Most days aren’t like that, of course, but the fact remains that KGH often operates very close to its maximum capacity. This leaves the hospital vulnerable to being quickly overwhelmed if there is a sudden spike of people showing up in the emergency room with COVID-19, or thinking they have it.

“It is a concern, and we have already seen an escalating number of people over the past couple of days. Our emergency department is already very busy anyway,” said Dr. David Pichora, the president and CEO of Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

As of Friday morning, there are still no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Kingston, but medical professionals and public health officials are expecting it to come eventually.

If the virus proves impossible to contain and begins spreading through the community, it will become essential to keep all but the sickest people out of the hospital — both to not take up capacity and to prevent the virus from being spread to patients and staff inside KGH or Hotel Dieu Hospital.

That is why KHSC and Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health have created dedicated coronavirus assessment centres to handle all suspected cases of the virus, rather than the emergency room or family doctors.

There are two assessment centres being set up — one at KGH and one at Hotel Dieu, both of which will only be accessible through dedicated entrances.

The location at Hotel Dieu will begin seeing patients on Monday, while the opening of the second location has yet to be determined. The clinic’s entrance is on Brock Street, through the front door of the old St. Joseph’s building.

Once they are open, anyone who believes they may have the coronavirus and needs to see a doctor should go to the assessment centres. That way, medical professionals can screen people for COVID-19 and assess their condition while keeping them separate from the rest of the hospitals.

“People who have (COVID-19) symptoms, especially if they have been travelling, that is where they should be going,” Pichora said.

“Keeping the screening and assessment makes the most sense. Partly so we can have a consistent approach, and so we can minimize the overcrowding that we already experience.”

The expectation is that only high-risk individuals or those with severe symptoms will be admitted to the hospital after going to the assessment clinics. Most people will be sent home to isolate themselves and wait for the virus to run its course.

Even if that is the case, the hospital will have to face the challenge or keep enough beds open for those who need them, especially in the intensive care unit.

“We are trying to do everything we can to maximize patient flow back to the community, so we don’t have patients backing up into our ICU. Because, if we look at this issue worldwide, ICU capacity is one of the big issues,” the CEO said. “We are optimizing our ICU capacity to prepare for whatever is coming.”

One way people can help the hospital fight overcrowding is to continue taking precautionary measures to slow the spread of the virus, such as washing hands and social distancing.

ahale@postmedia.com

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