25-bed North Carolina hospital braces for patient influx during World Equestrian Games

Leaders of Columbus, N.C.-based St. Luke's Hospital are preparing to serve a significantly larger number of patients with as many as 400,000 people anticipated to visit the town for the World Equestrian Games, WSPA reports.

"The site is expected to host up to 30,000 to 50,000 [people] potentially per day," said St. Luke's CEO Jim Bross. "It will not be in the hundreds of thousands on any given day; however, that's more than doubling, and perhaps tripling, our normal population we serve."

The 25-bed hospital typically serves a smaller community of older adults, but from Sept. 11 to Sept. 23 for the games, the hospital may serve up to three times that population each day.

"We don't have after-hours urgent care, and the emergency department at St. Luke's Hospital is the primary resource for that," Mr. Bross said.

St. Luke's is partnering with a western North Carolina emergency management group to put a mobile hospital unit behind the hospital in preparation for the event.

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