Two Metro Overflow Facilities Cost Taxpayers $21.45 Million, Treated 55 COVID Patients
Coronavirus 'insurance' was expensive at start of epidemic learning curve
Field hospitals constructed in downtown Detroit and Novi to handle a potential coronavirus overflow cost $21.45 million to construct, and together treated a combined 55 COVID-19 patients before being shut down.
The cost to assemble the unit located in the Novi Suburban Collection Showplace was $12.0 million. The TCF Regional Care Center in downtown Detroit cost $9.5 million put in service. The figures were provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to a a Freedom of Information Act request.
There were 16 coronavirus patients treated in Suburban Collection Showplace before the last individual was discharged on June 11, according to Michigan Radio.
The TCF Regional Care Center located in downtown Detroit opened April 10. It treated 39 COVID-19 patients. The last patient left the Detroit facility on May 6, Michigan Radio reported.
As of July 30, there were 727 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Michigan and the average bed occupancy rate in state hospitals was 74%, according to a state database.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.