The shuttered St. Luke’s Hospital in Phoenix will be re-fashioned to host 340 beds for intensive care patients.
“Sunday we signed an agreement, after the Corps of Engineers did a site survey, to reactivate eight of the nine floors at St. Luke’s,” said Maj. Gen. Michael T. McGuire at a Monday press conference. “We’ll develop statements of work in the next 72 hours, with an estimated time of completion to reactivate the facility of 21 days."
McGuire manages Arizona’s National Guard.
McGuire said the guard will use contractors to meet the timeline.
The head of the state’s health department, Dr. Cara Christ, said the Army Corps of Engineers is assessing other potential sites for additional hospital beds.
Arizona is expected to need almost double its current bed capacity to handle an influx of future patients with COVID-19.
Steward Health Care ran Phoenix St. Luke’s until it stopped service in November. The company still runs another St. Luke’s hospital in Tempe.
