COVID-19 tents a future lesson

It is impossible to forget the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when it seemed that New York might be lacking tens of thousands of hospital beds.

It would have meant chaos and tragedy, and state and federal officials prepared in part by jump-starting enormous alternate care facilities — essentially, temporary field or even tent hospitals.

It made good sense in the gruesome spring of 2020 to plan for the worst; some hospitals were already swamped with desperately ill patients. But as we gain distance from the worst of COVID we must learn lessons for the next emergency — and the temporary hospitals, whose construction was spearheaded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are an important place to start.

Three of them — located in Westchester and at Stony Brook University and SUNY Old Westbury on Long Island — were never utilized for COVID patients. A facility at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan served 1,095 hospital patients, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office. And costs ran high. Army Corps vendor contracts for the alternate care facilities totaled $11,364,953 for the Javits Center, $155,939,123 for Stony Brook, $121,494,354 for Old Westbury, and $46,971,895 for Westchester, according to Army Corps documents. Temporary infrastructure expert Jeffrey Stone estimates that the LI and Westchester sums were at least four times the going rate for similar temporary civilian structures.

Could the construction have been achieved differently? A nonprofit Business Executives for National Security report in February talked about improving emergency response, including the importance of "firms that specialize in private sector temporary facility installation."

We can also think more broadly. "Can you immediately repurpose or expand existing facilities, so you don't have to go through the whole aspect of constructing structures?" asked nonprofit president retired Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, in an interview with Newsday Opinion.

Expansion and reuse ended up being more effective in New York and elsewhere. While the quick Long Island tent and interior construction went unused by sick patients, hospitals did make crucial use of beds added in their buildings or on their grounds under the "flex & surge" concept.

Ultimately, flexibility was key. The Javits site ended up being a "very important relief valve," said Michael Dowling of Northwell Health, whose staff worked at the temporary facility. But Dowling said it needed modifications because at first it was "a whole series of cubicles" good for shelter but not for people with serious medical needs.

Temporary facilities should be able to adapt to local needs. A glimmer of this occurred at the Old Westbury site, a portion of which was used for vaccination, and where the current mass-vaccine setup for children makes use of Army Corps cubicles and dividers.

New York ended up being lucky that Long Island never needed its empty tent hospitals. But we must learn their lessons, because we might not be so lucky next time.