LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Kentucky is closing the 400-bed field hospital at Nutter Field House as the potential for a surge of COVID-19 patients has subsided.
The university announced the $6 million field hospital in early April to prepare for a worst-case scenario in which a spike in COVID-19 patients overwhelmed area hospitals. The field hospital was to accommodate patients who had already moved through hospital care and were transitioning to go home.
UK health officials said at the time that they were preparing a facility “that we hope we don’t need.” The field hospital hosted no patients in its roughly one-month existence.
University officials said the cost of the hospital was covered by the university’s health care system and that no tax or tuition dollars were involved. Under the contract, the cost could have gone up by another $1.6 million if the hospital remained open more than 30 days.
UK has not said when it will begin tearing down the field hospital, which consisted of tents, cots and temporary walls separating one cot from the next.
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