The hospital ship USNS Comfort made its way north on the Hudson River Harbor on March 30. The ship is serving as a referral center for non-COVID-19 patients in the New York City area to reduce the pressure on hospital during the current crisis. A field hospital was erected in Central Park, and the Jarvis Center to relieve the burden on crammed hospital corridors.

What hospital capacity means to us:

In my last post, I talked about the issue of the lack of hospital capacity not being limited to the number of beds, or number of ICU beds, but also the medical personnel.

Overall hospital capacity will be a crucial factor in the eventual fatality rate of COVID 19. In this simulation (only assume hospital capacity as the changing factor) we see that when there are more infections than hospital capacity, the fatality rate doubles.

Because of this, I believe increasing medical personnel’s’ well-being needs to be considered an integral part alongside increasing hospital capacity.

Why rest breaks and meal breaks matter:

According to this study , the chances of making an error was significantly increased when work shifts were longer than twelve hours, when nurses worked overtime and when they worked more than 40 hours per week.

Under the current legislation, the Department of Labor also requires a meal break: Rest break and Meal Break.

Challenges for current hospital capacities:

This video shows how medical workers have longer shifts than normal (8-12 hours) due to the recent surge of COVID 19 patients. And they must be well rested in order to fully concentrate on carrying out testing kits in order to diagnosis these potential patients.

In this video , Dr. Tiffany Osborn said she thinks all health care workers are concerned about their family given how contagious this novel virus is. Most of healthcare workers need a place to shower and change their clothes before they arrive home to hug their families to avoid possibility passing on germs from hospitals and medical centers.

What research tells us:

The power of napping

A study from National Sleep Foundation shows that a short nap of 20-30 minutes during the day can help to improve mood, alertness and performance.

Importance of a proper meal

Studies also show that taking a lunch break allows your mind to rest, recharge and refocus., which can directly improve your productivity for the rest of the day.

A dark and quiet room is a good nap environment

A dark, cool, quiet room is ideal for power naps. It is also recommended avoid disruptions, which sound proofing materials will also help.

A question for myself:

Having spent the past three weeks in social isolation myself, I continue thinking about how I can use current easily accessible and underutilized materials to help healthcare workers at the front line.

Due to the social distancing, there is less metro service running in the greater Washington DC area. There are also many metro cars that will retire in the coming years. The 2000-series of metro cars were delivered in 1982 and is expected to be retired in 2023. Therefore, I think building “Break Pods” might be a good use of some 2000 series cars that will be retired earlier.

Ingredients are:

The “Water Pod” will be designed to be installed at a single house (of the medical workers) or at the hospital sites themselves. For those at single homes, there will be a barrel tub amenity function. After the epidemic winds down and there urgent needs are met, those “Water Pods” could also be used as additions at homeless shelters or donate to other non-profits.

A side note: