Based on what is happening in New York, Boston, and other major cities, it is just a matter of time before Atlanta-area hospitals become swamped with COVID-19 patients. This unfortunate reality seems about as certain as the sun will come up tomorrow.
One opportunity to partially address this issue is to immediately utilize the large and empty building known as the Peachtree-Pine building to create emergency hospital bedspace. Located downtown directly across Peachtree Street from Emory North Hospital, this 95,000 square foot building which used to serve as the largest homeless shelter in the southeast is well suited to be transformed into a thriving, life-saving facility if we choose to act now.
I know this from my work as the Chairman of the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless where we housed approximately 500 vulnerable people daily at Peachtree-Pine for more than two decades. We basically used only one of the four floors to do this so I am convinced with proper planning, this building could conservatively house around 2,000 patients (a huge number).
Most likely, these patients would be non-COVID-19 patients, freeing bedspace at Emory North and other local hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients within a traditional hospital environment.
This undertaking will take a massive effort to make it a reality, and the work should start immediately. I’d love to see the Governor and Mayor call in the National Guard or others to begin the needed transformation. If we start now, we just might be able to get a little bit ahead of the curve on taking care of our fellow Atlantans.
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