CoxHealth Installs Extra Oxygen Equipment Due to COVID-19

CoxHealth is having to install new equipment and increase purchases of oxygen due to the amount of COVID-19 patients both in regular rooms and in the ICU.

CoxHealth orders oxygen in liquid form and converts it to a gas through a vaporizer unit. The hospital has had to purchase and add an additional vaporizer because of the demand on the system. An additional secondary tank holding four days worth of oxygen as an emergency backup to the main tank has been added to the system.

The reason is increased oxygen consumption from COVID-19 patients.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, CoxHealth would refill their oxygen tank on average every 25 days. Since the outbreak and COVID-19 patient increase, the tank has needed to be refilled on an average of 4-5 days.

The reason? COVID-19 patients who are on a ventilators can use as much oxygen as 30 average patients and it causes a strain on the system.

The hospital recently announced a possible third COVID-19 ward to deal with all the COVID-19 admissions.