Dutchess Readies Recovery Center For Coronavirus Patients

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Additional hospital beds are ready and waiting in Dutchess County should local hospitals exceed their capacity during the new coronavirus outbreak. On Saturday, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro joined Assistant Commissioner Cathi Tegtmeier and other people from the Department of Behavioral & Community Health as almost 50 Dutchess County Medical Reserve Corps volunteers were trained in the facility's operational structure.

The volunteers will assist in staffing the Dutchess County Recovery Center, which is located at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie.

County officials said that, though the staff is trained and the facility is ready to receive patients, it is not expected to be opened this week because local hospital bed capacity has remained stable.

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There are more than 600 adult and pediatric beds in three county hospitals: Vassar Medical Center, Northern Dutchess Hospital and MidHudson Regional Hospital.

According to the latest county numbers, as of noon Tuesday, there are 92 people hospitalized in the county with a confirmed case of the new coronavirus.

The Recovery Center will be available to serve people who can be discharged from hospital care but still need appropriate support service to continue recovering from the disease before returning home.

Dutchess Community College's Conklin Hall Dormitory serves as the location for the Recovery Center, with 176 rooms and 457 beds on four different floors. Total capacity will vary depending on the number of people requiring single rooms and/or access to private bathrooms per their health care plan.

Molinaro said he was grateful to the county health department's team and the Medical Reserve Corps volunteers for their work in preparing the Recovery Center.

"While we hope we will never need to utilize the Recovery Center based on the current trend in hospitalization, it is important to have this resource ready to care for people as we do not yet know when we will reach our apex with this virus," he said.

The county and Nuvance Health will coordinate each day to assess current hospital capacity and decide if there is a need to utilize the Recovery Center within the next three days.

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