CoxHealth is adding more beds to its COVID-19 intensive care unit at Cox South.
Cox is adding 33 new ICU beds over the next several weeks.
Once the work is complete, the hospital will have added 180 new beds since the pandemic began.
Work on the $1-million dollar project will begin in a few days.
Two announcements today at CoxHealth:
1). We will be adding another 33 beds to our Covid ICU, with a targeted completion end of month. Added to 51 icu, 24 cardiac, 36/72 med.
2). Rapid test 20-30 turnaround available at all urgent cares. SGF, Ozark, Lebanon, Branson, Monet.— Steve Edwards (@SDECoxHealth) December 7, 2020
Here’s more from CoxHealth:
As the number of COVID-19 cases across the region continues to rise, CoxHealth is expanding its capacity to serve patients who require inpatient care for COVID-19.
In the coming weeks, the health system will add 33 beds to its fifth floor COVID-19 ICU unit at Cox South. Including this expansion, the health system will have added more than 180 beds to its hospitals since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“We have said from the beginning that we would rather build spaces and not need them, then need them and not have them,” says Steve Edwards, president and CEO of CoxHealth. “Our great hope is that we never need this expansion to care for COVID-19 patients, but it will have been worth it to us to have it ready if we do.”
Work on the approximately $1 million project, which will transform remaining shell space on the fifth floor into a medical unit, will begin in the coming days. It will start after construction is complete on another new unit in the hospital, which will potentially also be used initially for COVID-19 patients.
CoxHealth has applied for additional staffing resources through the state, is bringing in traveling health professionals, and is aggressively hiring to help staff the new areas.
