Both local field hospitals for coronavirus patients — at TCF Center in Detroit and Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi — are open and treating patients, but the pace of admissions has been slow.

At TCF Center, a nearly 1,000-bed field hospital in the former Cobo Convention Center, 14 patients were being treated Saturday and a total of 34 patients have received treatment at some point in the last two weeks. At Suburban, which opened for patients Friday, two patients were being treated at the 250-bed field hospital.

The two facilities were built by construction crews, skilled trades workers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help ease a surge of coronavirus patients at southeast Michigan hospitals.

While many of those regular hospitals have been running at or near capacity during the coronavirus crisis, some of the health care facilities are seeing declining numbers. Detroit Medical Center, Hurley Medical Center in Flint and Trinity Health in Livonia were at 81% capacity or higher.

Suburban had been planned as a 1,100-bed field hospital, but the state scaled back after hospital admissions started declining. Another planned field hospital at an indoor track at the University of Michigan was put on hold for the same reason.

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TCF is staffed with military medical personnel and health care professionals from some of the hospitals in southeast Michigan. Ascension Michigan and St. Joseph Mercy Health System are providing the medical care at the Suburban field hospital.

The facilities are designed for patients who have had symptoms of coronavirus for at least 10 days and have been hospitalized for at least 48 hours, which is enough time to determine whether they’ll need more intensive care and a ventilator. Those more seriously ill patients will stay in the hospital, while those transferred to TCF and Suburban still need care, but don’t need a ventilator.

As a result of the criteria for patients at the field hospitals, many of the patients who have been admitted are elderly and residents of nursing homes or other types of assisted living facilities that require a negative COVID-19 test before they can be accepted back at their home residences. Some of the patients also are staying in the field hospital, rather than go home and potentially infect family members.

Key personnel at Suburban Collection Showplace Regional Care Center are:

Liz Popwell, chief administrative officer, is the chief strategy officer for Ascension Michigan.

Dr. Michael Feld, chief medical officer, is an emergency medicine physician with Ascension Michigan, the Region 2 North Healthcare Coalition medical director and the Macomb County Medical Control Authority medical director.

Dr. Michael Gatt, deputy chief medical officer, is chief medical officer of St. Joe's Medical Group.

Dr. Jodi Galdes, deputy incident commander, is chief medical information officer of St. Mary Mercy Livonia hospital.

The facility will initially receive patients from Ascension Michigan and St. Joe’s hospitals, but may also accept patients from any health care facility. The field hospital won't accept any walk-in patients. It does not have an emergency room or intensive care unit.

The state paid nearly $8.2 million each for six-month leases at the two convention centers. The cost to build out the TCF center was $9.4 million. The cost to transform Suburban into a field hospital wasn't available Saturday.

Contact Kathleen Gray: kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.