Dave Bangert | Lafayette Journal & Courier

coronavirus.gov

LAFAYETTE – Two new structures started going up this weekend in a parking lot outside Franciscan Health Lafayette East, as the hospital prepared to do drive-thru coronavirus testing and to make space to triage patients if a surge of patients come.

Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier

Lisa Decker, spokeswoman for the hospital on Creasy Lane, said Sunday that drive-thru testing being set up under what looks like a portable carport could be ready by the end of the week. She said the testing would be limited, though, to those who have a doctor’s order to get a test, not for those who simply want one. A similar service was scheduled to start Monday at Franciscan Health’s sister hospital in Rensselaer, at 1104 E. Grace St.

Next to it, in eyeshot of Franciscan Health East’s emergency department, wooden studs were anchored into the parking lot Saturday for a 20-by-40-foot temporary triage unit. Decker said that barn-like structure could be ready in another seven to nine days, depending on the coming week’s weather.

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The two structures under construction were in addition to a tent Franciscan Health East rented and placed by the emergency department entrance a week earlier as another temporary triage unit.

“If we start to ramp up (in coronavirus cases), we need to get a little separation from the entrance to the (emergency department),” Decker said. “We’ll get people out there to free up the traffic.”

With 11 confirmed cases and one death reported in Tippecanoe County, as of Sunday, was the hospital seeing a surge?

“We’re not there, yet,” Decker said. “Hopefully, we won’t ever have to use it and we can use the triage unit going up as a storage barn or something. … The bottom line is we don’t want people panicking, but it’s sending the message that we’re prepared. We are thinking longer term now, about if we have a surge, what do we do and what’s the next step – and then, what’s the next step? We’re trying to prepare the best we can for comes. We just don’t know, right now, what exactly is coming.”

Photo provided

Decker said traffic in Franciscan’s emergency department continued to be down in the past week, compared to normal levels, in what she said was a sign that community members were heeding pleas to steer clear unless they had a true emergency.

She said Franciscan had tested the tent in the past week to treat people who came in with respiratory-type illnesses, to make sure the medical staff was accustomed to the four-patient unit and to check that generators works, WiFi coverage was adequate and that it could handle the demands of triage-style care.

Decker said Franciscan – which has 167 beds, outside ones in labor and delivery, pediatrics and the neo-natal intensive care unit, that typically are 80 percent to 90 percent used – continued to set up space in the hospital in case of a coronavirus-related surge.

Decker said that as of Sunday, eight patients were waiting results of coronavirus tests.

In Rensselaer, where drive-thru testing was scheduled to start Monday, after testing, patients were going to be sent home to treat their symptoms and to isolate themselves. The patient's doctors would notify them with test results within three to five days, according to Franciscan Health.

Meanwhile, two tents have gone up outside the IU Health Arnett Outpatient Surgical Center, which is next to IU Health Arnett Hospital at Veterans Memorial Parkway and McCarty Lane in Lafayette.

Rhonda Jones, IU Health Arnett’s spokeswoman, said that Health team members with possible COVID-19 exposure or illness have been directed to contact the IU Health Virtual Clinic, which has been doing remote checkups for the past two weeks. She said that if it is determined the team member should be tested, an order for testing will be place.

She that “to expedite testing for West Central Region team members and minimize the risk to others a remote testing location is being established near the IU Health Arnett Outpatient Surgical Center.” That was expected to start screening health care workers as early as this week, Jones said.

Jones said IU Health Arnett did not have plans, “at this time,” to test members of the general public.

A week earlier, IU Health Arnett erected a canopy for ambulances, since the IU Health Arnett ambulance bay was converted into a separate treatment area to assess patients with respiratory issues, Jones said.

There were no set plans, as of Monday, in Tippecanoe County for overflow space for treatment or isolation units if hospitals are overloaded, Khala Hochstedler, Tippecanoe County Health Department administrator, said.

“(Tippecanoe County Health Department) has been having this conversation with community partners and still working on finalizing those plans,” Hochstedler said Monday afternoon.