Photo courtesy of Hotel Meliá Barcelona Sarrià.
The world is a different place since COVID-19 crept into every corner of our lives. It seems that practically everything we used to do before quarantine has changed in only a matter of a few weeks.
In addition to our personal lives, businesses around the world have undergone a massive transformation. In Barcelona, some hotels that formerly received thousands of beach-bound tourists each month have instead felt a call of civic duty and responded by transforming their facilities into medicalized hotels. These hotels and their staff are critical components of the solution to support local hospitals, absorbing the avalanche of triaged patients and increasing the ability of health-care professionals to serve COVID-19 patients more effectively.
To learn about the day-to-day operations in a medicalized hotel, I spoke with someone intimately involved in this process, Enrique Aranda, Cluster General Manager Barcelona, comprising Meliá Sarrià 5*, Meliá Sky 4* SUP and The Level at Meliá Barcelona.
Photo courtesy of Hotel Meliá Barcelona Sarrià.
It’s 10:00 on a Friday morning and Enrique talks with me via an online Zoom call. He is wearing a surgical mask and in the background I can hear raised voices encouraging, cheering and motivating one another: an essential element these days to liven the spirits of the hotel staff, patients and the local community in the hotel’s vicinity.
What was the process of converting a hotel for tourists into one for COVID-19 patients?
On a Friday afternoon, we decided to close the Hotel Meliá Barcelona Sarrià for the first time since it commenced operations. We put the entire building into hibernation, with all that this implies, such as, shutting off all the lights, covering the windows, shutting down the equipment systems, etc. The following Wednesday I met with people from the Barcelona hotel guild, the fire department, Vall d'hebron Hospital, Consorci Sanitari and company personnel to see if we met the necessary conditions to become a medicalized hotel.
After three hours, we were convinced that it could be done, but that we had to be very strict with a series of new protocols that we'd have to implement.
What protocols were they referring to?
Well, there were many. For example, one stipulated that there could only be one patient per room. Since most of our rooms have two beds we had to pull a bed out of each room, a major logistical exercise and something that we would never have done under normal circumstances.
Also, they asked us to supply furniture for the makeshift hospitals that were being rapidly constructed. So we contributed 203 beds and their bases which firefighters took to the pavilions where these temporary hospitals were being set up.
Additionally, we removed from our rooms all the items that are not usually in a standard hospital room, leaving only a bed, a small table and a television. Within the hotel, we separated all the halls into three types: one for staff, one for patients and another for all the elements that we deemed may have been contaminated and needed to be evacuated.
How long are the patients usually with you?
About 14 days. However, if patients develop symptoms of COVID-19 then they stay until the symptoms have disappeared, at which point we then reset their stay for an additional 14 days. We have been at this for four weeks. We have finally started to discharge people who arrived at the beginning, after having been in very bad shape in a hospital.
Before starting the interview we heard people cheering in the background. What was that about?
Each day we organize patient discharges to be completed before 10:00, since the rooms must be cleaned and rigorously disinfected to admit new patients.
There is a lot of positive energy in the mornings; a very motivational environment is created while we are in the process of discharging people who have been staying in our hotel during their convalescence. Many of these people were previously in critical care units at hospitals—or even in comas—so we feel that the end of the disease must be celebrated.
Photo courtesy of Hotel Meliá Barcelona Sarrià.
And then it's time to prepare for the new entries, right?
Exactly, every day several ambulances trickle in with people who have been in small nearby hospitals and homes. But at noon a large bus always arrives; it’s the kind that we see every day in Barcelona. On this bus, the destination sign says “queda’t a casa” (stay at home), this identifies the buses that are responsible for taking patients from hospitals to continue their recovery at medicalized hotels. They are also recognizable because everyone inside wears a surgical mask and looks exhausted, confused and tormented by the horrible experiences they have endured with this disease.
What happens when these tired people arrive on this bus to the Meliá hotel?
I personally receive them and give a welcome speech. Above all, I try to convey a lot of encouragement; I explain why they are here—namely because they have successfully overcome COVID-19—and now they only have to brave the period of confinement. I explain that they are no longer in a hospital, rather a luxurious five-star hotel, with cable television and amenities to read the international press and help recover in a safe environment. In addition, here we have social services that coordinate all the donations we have received. The response has been overwhelming. Here they are very well cared for and have all their needs covered.
Boosting morale cannot be easy, how do you do it?
Many people are not clear about what they are doing here. I explain to them that they are heroes, that they have left their beds to patients who are in much graver condition than they are, people who need hospital care the most, and that they are now on the side of those who are fighting against the virus.
Immediately afterwards, we all acknowledge this and give ourselves a round of applause. Most are smiling by the time we get off the bus. Though, once, a lady drew tears from the group as she recited the harrowing experience she had survived. At that moment, I tried to turn her spirits around by explaining to her that she was able to let herself cry now because she had been through the worst of it and was finally able to relax. In the end she managed to smile. This is our extremely rewarding mission, to lift their spirits.
How do you live that special moment that has been created at 20:00 every evening when everyone applauds?
It's crazy. Not only the staff but the neighbors go out of their way to greet and applaud. I tell the staff that the applause is dedicated to them.
Despite this difficult period, there are many very nice anecdotes. People who live near the hotel send us letters with stories that the little ones make for the patients. Some even draw rainbows with the phrase "Tot anirà bé" (everything will be OK).
Photo courtesy of Hotel Meliá Barcelona Sarrià.
As our conversation ends I am overwhelmed with the desire for the end of these days of illness, isolation and social distancing. I want to hug all those people—health-care personnel, firefighters, hotel staff, bus drivers—who, like him, are working every day to overcome this pandemic. Enrique refers to the patients as heroes for overcoming this disease. For me, the first responders, hospital personnel and all the people who work in medicalized hotels are superheroes for giving the best of themselves every day in a situation as difficult as the one we are living now.
I turn off the computer with a heavy heart but with a deep sense of gratitude and the conviction that in this country we have many people with a great deal of courage. Thanks to them—and those of us who responsibly remain at home though desperate to return to our normal lives—we will come out of this stronger than ever.
This is why I love to repeat the phrase: Barcelona more than ever!
You can catch regular updates on the hotel's activities as a medicalized hotel via Twitter @MeliaBcnSarria, Facebook @MeliaBarcelonaSarria and Instagram @meliabcnsarria.