The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas has awarded Mercy Health Foundation $147,860 to support Mercy Hospital’s upgrade of patient rooms to help protect patients, co-workers, and the community from the spread of coronavirus.
The upgrades involved converting 29 existing patient rooms into “negative pressure” rooms with specialized air handling systems that help to remove airborne pathogens. Mercy Hospital had 19 negative pressure rooms prior to the additional upgrades.
The Blue & You grant enabled Mercy to pay for the design, engineering, and conversion of the hospital rooms, which are sometimes known as isolation rooms. They are used to treat patients with any airborne infectious disease, but the conversion was primarily aimed at containment of coronavirus.
“We are grateful to the Blue & You Foundation, a longtime supporter, for helping healthcare providers across the state respond quickly to the threat of coronavirus in our communities,” said Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital. “This pandemic is showing us that we are truly all in this together.”
Planning for the room upgrades began in March, and the work was completed April 4.