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'We'll Be Ready' | MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital Prepares In Case Of Surge In COVID-19 Patients

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital is preparing in case there is a sudden increase of COVID-19 patients.

Many of its physicians sharpened up on their Intensive Care Unit skills inside the MedStar Mobile Training Center on Thursday.

"It's important that we're doing this now to maintain a state of readiness," Dr. John Yosaitis said.

Dr. Yosaitis is training doctors who are outside the Intensive Care Unit to get them ready to be redeployed to care for COVID-19 patients.

"We're teaching resuscitation, we're teaching ventilator management and we're teaching how to use our new TeleHealth product," Yosaitis said.

That product would get healthcare workers connected with a bunkered ICU intensivist who would consult them on intensive care medicine.

"If the surge comes, we'll be ready," Yosaitis said.

CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

For many of those being trained, they're already familiar with a lot of the basic ICU skills, but this teaches them the latest techniques.

"It helps to give us some confidence that we'll be able to handle it and treat our patients with the best quality of care that we can," Nicholas Bedard, of MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, said.

More training will continue Friday at MedStar Southern Maryland.

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.

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