WOSU: How Ohio Hospitals Are Preparing For COVID-19

As of March 11, four cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus) have been confirmed in Ohio. While none of the confirmed cases are in central Ohio, area hospitals are committed to being prepared should cases arise here.

On March 6, Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, OhioHealth senior vice president and chief medical officer, was interviewed on WOSU radio, where he said that OhioHealth has been preparing since January for possible cases.

Should a patient with COVID-19 be hospitalized, OhioHealth has special negative pressure rooms for them, in order to keep other patients, visitors, doctors and associates safe.

“What those rooms essentially do is they pull all of the air that’s in the room, continuously out of the room, and filter it through some very special filters, that cleanse that air before expelling it outside,” Dr. Vanderhoff told WOSU.

In those rooms, he told WOSU, particles or droplets from a coughing or sneezing patient are filtered, instead of traveling to the hallway where others could be infected.

You can listen to the full interview by clicking on the WOSU logo below.