After being in operation for nearly four months, the Alternate Care Facility at Wisconsin State Fair Park is being decommissioned.
The Wisconsin Department of Administration announced Friday, March 19, 2021, that the decommission process is underway, citing a decline in COVID hospitalizations.
The facility was set up in the spring of 2020 to assist hospitals across Wisconsin if additional treatment space for COVID-19 patients was needed. It had the ability to take care of up to 530 people.
According to statistics, the facility was activated October 14 and could accept up to 50 patients. It accepted its first patient on October 21. At its peak, the facility had 23 patients receiving treatment.
The final patient was treated there December 24. It was placed on “mothball” status February 15 after serving 170 total patients.
In addition, the site also housed a Bamlanivimab Infusion Clinic, which is used for treatment of mild or moderate cases of COVID-19. Between December 22 and February 5, 38 people received this treatment at the clinic.
“The Alternate Care Facility was constructed as hospitalizations from COVID-19 were increasing across our state to ensure that our health systems and local governments could continue to provide high-quality care to Wisconsinites,” DOA Secretary Joel Brennan said in a news release. “It not only brought relief to our hospitals but also provided quality and compassionate healthcare to Wisconsinites in their time of need.”
“On behalf of the ACF Leadership team and staff, I am honored to have had the opportunity to partner with hospitals across the state to care for COVID-19 patients,” said ACF CEO Debra Standridge. “And I am proud of the work we did in listening and responding to our health care systems’ rapidly changing needs during the pandemic – from adjusting the ACF’s patient admission criteria to diversifying our service offerings to implementing the BAM Infusion Clinic.”
Sanitation efforts are underway to clean the site of the facility inside the Wisconsin Exposition Center. State Fair Park is expected to be back to its normal state by the end of April.
