July 21, 2020 – ICUs filled up during the peak of the pandemic in Michigan this March. Out of necessity, the virus may have driven change within the healthcare system, including Henry Ford Health System (Detroit, MI) hospitals, faster than ever seen before.
Other states sent spare ventilators to Michigan as thousands of patients with the new coronavirus arrived in emergency rooms. More than 73,000 Michiganders were infected in four months and more than 6,000 died.
Henry Ford microbiologists and other scientists worked all day and night to create a system for turning around same-day COVID-19 test results.
When it began processing them in mid-March, Henry Ford’s lab could handle about 100 tests per day. Now, its capacity has grown to 1,500 tests per day…