Beaumont Hospital, Wayne Closes Temporarily, Awaits COVID-19 'Second Surge'

Emergency designations on care venues means that the now-empty, 185-bed hospital will treat only COVID-19 patients until the pandemic declaration has lifted.

Beaumont Hospital, Wayne "temporarily paused" this week in anticipation of a "second surge" of COVID-19 patients that the health system said could occur if social distancing restrictions are eased.

"Beaumont Hospital, Wayne is important to Beaumont Health and is not permanently closing. Rumors to that effect are false," the Royal Oak, Michigan-based health system said.

Wayne's "few remaining patients" were either discharged or transferred from the 185-bed, acute-care hospital this week, and staff were redeployed to other Beaumont hospitals or temporarily laid off.

Beaumont said the region was expecting a surge in COVID-19 patients two weeks ago and gained state approval to designate Wayne as a COVID-19-only hospital.

"Fortunately, the surge was more moderated, likely due to aggressive social distancing, the stay at home order and other factors mitigating the spread of the disease," Beaumont said.  

However, Beaumont said, strict state designations on care venues means that the now-empty Wayne hospital will remain under the COVID-19-only status until the pandemic declaration has been lifted.

"This is in preparation for a second surge that could occur after the stay at home restrictions end," Beaumont said. "The pandemic remains very unpredictable. Beaumont Health is committed to responding to potential ongoing COVID-19 surges by relying upon our Wayne hospital and other resources."

"Beaumont is committed to reopening Beaumont, Wayne and making sure the services provided there both meet the community's needs and fit within our system’s overall strategic plan. However, we will only do that when it is safe to do so and when we have more clarity about the pandemic."

As of Friday afternoon, Michigan had reported 29,263 COVID-19 cases and 2,093 deaths.