It sat empty for 17 years. In 13 days they built new wing for coronavirus patients. – NJ.com

New Jersey needs more space to house and treat patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

As part of his push to ensure those spaces exist, Gov. Phil Murphy directed operators of longterm care facilities to make arrangements to accommodate residents with the coronavirus by creating separate, isolated units were these patients can recover without endangering non-COVID residents.

In less than two weeks, the staff at one South Jersey continuing care community managed to convert a former patient wing that hadnt housed patients in years into a dedicated COVID-19 unit.

Friends Village at Woodstown welcomed its first coronavirus patients to the isolated unit on Wednesday, just 13 days after the renovation project began.

A lot came together in a very short time, acknowledged Gary Morris, director of marketing at Friends Village.

Friends is a retirement community in Salem County that provides all levels of care for seniors, from independent living to assisted living and long-term services on a 30-acre campus.

Workers renovate an old unit at Friends Village at Woodstown to prepare for COVID-19 patients.

This expansion is not intended to take hospital overflow cases, as is being done in a few other nursing homes statewide.

Patients treated here, including current Friends Village residents, will be those discharged from hospitals who are still COVID positive but over their window of worry, so to speak, Morris said. We would get them back up and running.

The new unit can include eight to 12 beds, but that figure is a moving target, Morris said.

Over the years, Friends Village has expanded into different areas of independent living, Morris explained, and new cottages and apartments have been built across the campus. The renovated wing was a residential area decades ago, but hasnt seen patients in about 17 years. Until last month, it was used for storage.

Friends Village knew it had to prepare for the coronavirus and quickly formed a plan to reactivate the area, which needed plenty of renovations.

We looked at that hallway and said we can make it happen, Morris said.

They discussed the idea in late March and had approval from the state Department of Health by April 2. They had bids for roof work that night.

Renovations to the wing included installing an entirely new roof to replace the leaky old one, installing new plumbing and bathroom fixtures, replacing carpeting with vinyl flooring, installing phone lines and WiFi, and giving the whole place a fresh coat of paint. Each single-patient room comes complete with a TV.

The unit is completely blocked off from the rest of the facility, with a separate exterior entrance and a separate drop-off area for ambulances.

We completely rerouted ambulance traffic on campus, Morris said. We tried to manage the flow so we know exactly where every positive patient would be on campus, even from arrival by ambulance.

The units staff of about 20, including three shifts of nurses, aides, physical therapists and maintenance, work in this unit only.

In addition to contractors, the facilitys maintenance staff worked 18-hour days to pull this project together, while other members of the staff pitched in.

It was all hands on deck, Morris said. Personally, I was laying on the floor hooking up hospital beds. The only way to make it happen was to put your titles and roles away. We were just doing everything.

LeeAnne McCauley, director of nursing at Friends Village, posted a message to Facebook praising the teamwork that made this project possible.

Today is my 13th straight at work with most of those days averaging 14+ hours, she wrote. And there are other people who have put even more time in than that. The teamwork that pulled this off is nothing short of spectacular.

Ambulances will be directed to a special drop-off point for COVID-19 patients arriving at the new coronavirus unit opened at Friends Village at Woodstown.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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It sat empty for 17 years. In 13 days they built new wing for coronavirus patients. - NJ.com