GREENSBORO, N.C. — A specialized 48-foot tractor-trailer, stationed outside Moses Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, serves as a grim reminder that this pandemic is getting worse.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the morgue inside Moses Cone Hospital has room, but hospital leaders said it won't be long before they run out.
They told WFMY News 2 the morgue truck will be operational within the next couple of days, and that it's an important and also, a necessary step ahead of an unprecedented number of patients.
"We've been very outspoken about what our projections show because we truly have seen patient volumes that are extremely high and will continue to get higher if we don't do something to help impact that trend," said Preston Hammock, Moses Cone President.
The record number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations aren't just impacting the number of hospital beds. Patient projections are pushing the entire system's capacity limits, including room in the morgue.
"Every hospital has its own morgue. The Moses Cone Hospital morgue has a capacity of 36," Hammock said, "We've had days where we have hit capacity in our morgue."
Hammock said those days happened recently. Leaders worked with the state to make accommodations for Cone Health's largest hospital and obtained the trailer, which arrived at Moses Cone on Monday.
"We were able to work with our county and state emergency management partners to procure this trailer. What this does is it effectively doubles the size of our morgue on this hospital campus," he said.
Other hospitals have felt a similar strain on capacity. There are no morgue trucks at any other Cone Hospital campus.
"My hope is that [the morgue truck] reminds people just how serious this disease is, and how important it is to take seriously the precautions that we have urged and talked about frequently in our community," Hammock said.
As far as the morgue capacity at Cone Health hospitals, a spokesperson reports those numbers break down as such: Alamance Regional Medical Center has space for 10 but soon expanding to 19; Annie Penn Hospital with four; the Green Valley Campus with 18; and Wesley Long Hospital with five.
