Kentucky weighs using hotel rooms as hospital rooms during COVID-19 outbreak

Could Kentucky hotels be called upon to help the state’s healthcare industry during the COVID-19 outbreak?

Governor Beshear says those conversations are taking place.

It’s been a part of the news cycle: COVID-19 will tax the healthcare system, and more hospital beds, equipment, and personnel will be needed.

Now, Governor Andy Beshear says it is possible that Kentucky’s hotel industry could be used to increase the state’s number of hospital beds, which stands at just over 18,000.

Hank Phillips is with the Kentucky Travel Industry Associates and says thousands of hotel jobs have been lost since the COVID-19 outbreak started.

With word that the Governor would like to convert some of the state’s hotel beds to hospital beds, he said a recent survey discovered that at least 50-60 hotels were open to that possibility.

Right now the plan is still in the works and changing daily but Phillips says he believes it would not necessarily be hotels becoming hospitals.

HANK PHILLIPS/Ky. Travel Industry Association:

“What was being sought was an interest and a willingness on the part of hotels to provide rooms for people who needed to be quarantined, either prior to or in lieu of hospitalization or quarantine following hospitalization,” explains Phillips.

Again, the plan for this is still in the works and from what WKYT has been told, nothing has been finalized yet. But travel industry folks say it appears to them that many hotels are open to assist in this way.

Governor Beshear says in addition to hospital beds, they will also need more ICU beds and ventilators.