Importance of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Conversion of a High Specialty Hospital to a COVID-Hospital

The National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER, its Acronym in Spanish) is a Mexican tertiary-care-hospital specialized in respiratory diseases. On February 27, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in Mexico was confirmed at the INER. As of this date, the Institute began its conversion process to a COVID hospital. The challenge was to achieve the maximum capacity of 250 beds for the care of critical patients and turn the Institute into a 100% COVID hospital, becoming the largest Intensive Care Unit in the country. The participation of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBE) in this process was crucial; since it re-engineered a set of processes related to the planning, installation, training, use and management, maintenance and performance of medical technology. The DBE defined the technological and logistical changes to increase the capacity for intensive care in each of the clinical areas. It evaluated aspects related to infrastructure, supply of medicinal gases and medical equipment; particularly ventilators, which were the most demanded equipment for the care of COVID patients. This paper presents the process of converting the INER to a COVID-Hospital accompanied by the functions performed by the Biomedical Engineering Department in said process. .