Wexner Medical Center to build "pandemic floor"

Driving the news: Franklin County commissioners will vote Tuesday on a resolution to invest $3.2 million in federal pandemic relief funds toward the project.

Details: The funding would pay for installation of a dedicated exhaust system on one floor of the 1.9-million-square-foot facility set to open in 2026.

• The hospital could convert the floor into a 60-bed negative pressure unit in case of a future pandemic or other public health need, Wexner Medical Center spokesperson Marti Leitch tells Axios.

Flashback: Ohio turned non-medical facilities into emergency surge hospitals early in the pandemic but those were never used and hospitals were overrun with COVID patients more than 18 months later.

• Andrew Thomas, the chief clinical officer at Wexner Medical Center, helped lead the state's pandemic response and repeatedly expressed concern with hospital overcrowding.