Providence Medford prepares overflow tents for potential outbreak

Preventative measures it has available.

Newswatch 12's leah thompson is live at the hospital.

She talked to the chief medical officer this afternoon about what is available if an outbreak happens.

The biggest thing hospitals want to do is make people feel better.

They also don't want to spread anything infectious.

So tents like this one would be used outside of the hospital.

In the parking lot next to the emergency room.

It is a safe and enclosed area to keep germs inside.

An air filter system is attached to make sure germs don't filter outside.

The tents would be used for screenings and evaluation to see the level of sickness.

The patient and evaluators would be decontaminated through these hoses before leaving.

Sometimes when we see surges in the community we don't have the capacity to manage those patients in our emergency department and so this would be an overflow tent in case we see such a surge.

At this time he does not think these tents are needed.

Only if there is a huge surge of the virus in the community.

Inside the hospital dr. cool says there is still a good supply of masks and hand sanitizer.

Coming up at 6pm i'll tell you what you need to do if you think you have the coronavirus and you want to get checked by a doctor.

Live in medford leah thompson newswatch