Columbus, Ga.-based Midtown Medical Center installed a portable clinic outside its emergency department to manage an overwhelming influx of flu patients, reports the Ledger-Enquirer.
Starting Feb. 16, flu patients between the ages of 2 to 64 will be treated in the portable clinic. The "influenza clinic" was set up in a white trailer in the medical center's parking lot.
Columbus Regional Health, Midtown Medical Center's parent company, said it deployed a mobile unit for three reasons: its ED was flooded with flu patients, separating flu patients can help prevent the spread of influenza and the mobile unit can provide quicker, streamlined care for flu-like illness.
"We have made the decision to bring in a modular building and begin treating [influenza-like illness] adult and pediatric patients in this separate space to allow for better services to all our patients," Columbus Regional Health said in a news release, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
The hospital says it is treating as many as 100 patients a day for flu-like illnesses. The mobile unit will be used until flu season peaks and flu-like illness numbers decline.