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Neptune Plumbing Helps Cleveland Clinic Establish 1000-Bed Surge Hospital

Hands welding copper pipe
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Proud to Be Part of the Solution

As we find ourselves in the midst of an uncertain and rapidly-evolving global crisis, it has become clearer than ever that the answer lies in decisive, cooperative action on a scale that many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. At Neptune Plumbing, our passion has always been to help people and support our community as much as we can. Our drive to help was brought into much clearer focus in recent weeks as we watched the hardships and struggles of our friends and neighbors dealing with business closures, layoffs, and self-isolation. This is why when we had the opportunity to be a part of the project that would convert the main building of the Health Education Campus to a 1,006-bed surge hospital, we jumped at the chance.

Pipefitters working on a new copper pipe outside an office building

The Project – Cleveland Clinic’s Hope Hospital

Around the beginning of April 2020, it was announced that the Cleveland Clinic would be working to convert the 477,000 square foot main building of Case Western Reserve University’s Health Education Campus into a surge hospital. This building would accommodate up to 1,000 COVID-19 patients whose symptoms required hospitalization but were not severe enough to need ventilators or large amounts of oxygen. This facility is intended to help free up space in the ICU for severe cases, while still ensuring that the patients are getting the care they need.

Within two weeks, a team of hundreds of operational leaders, design teams, nursing teams, and construction teams like ourselves were able to build out an incredible temporary facility that rivals some established hospitals. It was given the name Hope Hospital.

An Unprecedented Undertaking

Taking on a project of this scale would normally take years – but projections indicated a worst-case scenario that could have overwhelmed the local healthcare system in weeks or months. Planners knew that they needed to act fast. In teams of 100 per shift, tradespeople across industries worked around the clock to install lighting fixtures, patient beds, partitions, monitoring equipment, and more. Our team even helped to install 6 miles of medical-grade copper tubing!

Hope Hospital will begin admitting patients only in the event that the hospitals begin to approach maximum capacity. The hospital’s planners hope that they will not need to use the facility to its full extent, but will keep the facility open for as long as it is needed. When the situation has passed, there is a plan in place to decommission the space and return everything to its pre-COVID state.

Bundles of new pipes

A Team Effort

We are so grateful to have been a part of this project and to have had the opportunity to contribute in such a meaningful way. At Neptune Plumbing, we believe strongly in the power of the community to come together and accomplish incredible things.

To learn more about our project or inquire about one of your own, contact our team today.

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