CommonSpirit Health pledges ventilators for national COVID-19 ‘Dynamic Ventilator Reserve’

Chicago, Ill.—April 14, 2020– CommonSpirit Health, which has 137 hospitals and 1,200 care sites serving patients across 21 states, is participating in a new public-private effort to identify, manage and move ventilators needed by hospitals across the country treating a surge of COVID-19 patients.

Under the new initiative announced at the White House Tuesday, several health systems will pledge thousands of ventilators to the government’s “Dynamic Ventilator Reserve” that can be loaned to hospitals across the country if needed to provide urgent, life-saving care. CommonSpirit has designated up to 500 ventilators to the program. These ventilators will be part of a new database that can efficiently move equipment to places where it is most urgently needed, with the program committing to return or replace any ventilators that are sent to other facilities.

As one of the largest health care provider systems in the United States, CommonSpirit has been sourcing ventilators, N-95 respirators and other equipment in anticipation of the increasing number of COVID-19 patients. By managing its supply strategically, the system has been able to move supplies from region to region as patient volumes shift in different parts of the country. CommonSpirit has also helped to stand up special COVID-19 surge units and even entire surge hospitals in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“We have an obligation to do everything we can to support health care for people all across the country. By working together on a coordinated approach, we can make sure resources get to hospitals and patients where the needs are most urgent,” said Marvin O’Quinn, CommonSpirit’s President and Chief Operating Officer. “As a national health network we are moving supplies where they’re most needed every single day, and contributing to this new national reserve will help us have an even greater impact on our collective response to this pandemic.”

More information about the program from the American Hospital Association is available here.

More information about CommonSpirit Health’s response to the coronavirus is available at www.catholichealthinitiatives.org/covid19 and at www.dignityhealth.org/covid19.

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About CommonSpirit Health

CommonSpirit Health is a nonprofit, Catholic health system dedicated to advancing health for all people. It was created in February 2019 by Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. With its national office in Chicago and a team of approximately 150,000 employees and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians, CommonSpirit Health operates 137 hospitals and more than 1000 care sites across 21 states. In FY 2019, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health had combined revenues of nearly $29 billion and provided $4.45 billion in charity care, community benefit, and unreimbursed government programs.
Learn more at commonspirit.org.