Army field hospital at CenturyLink Field Event Center expected to open this week

SEATTLE — The 250-bed field hospital being created at CenturyLink Field Event Center is expected to open this week, according to a Department of Defense report.

Officials said the field hospital will treat non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up bed space at area hospitals, so people with the coronavirus can be cared for.

“We have an important mission,” Army Col. Hope Williamson-Younce said during a telephone news conference with reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.

“That is the best place for those patients to be: inside the fixed facility in a controlled environment,” Williamson-Younce said.

Five hundred military medical personnel from multiple units will be working at the field hospital.

At the hospital, there will be operating suites, a lab, blood banking, X-ray capabilities and more.

While many of the military personnel are constructing the field hospital, others are working with local officials to determine what patients will come to the hospital and how they will be transported, Army officials said.

According to a report from the DOD, patients will be screened at referring hospitals and again at the field hospital to make sure they don’t have the coronavirus.

Because field hospitals are set for wartime, meaning beds are close together, each bed will have a barrier in between for privacy concerns, officials said.

Officials said the team of Army care workers is working to ensure civilians will experience what is in a local hospital.

As far as the number of patients that will come to the field hospital, it is unknown at this time, officials said.

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