TERRE HAUTE Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)- In an effort to ready themselves for an influx of COVID-19 cases, Union Health Hospital has created a Incident Command Center.

EMS Preparedness Coordinator Barry Nicoson said the center has been in affect for 18 days now, and have already made some changes.

“Everything filters through us and we do that on purpose because if we have one center to make the decisions, then the decisions can stay consistent.”

He said one of the adjustments for the hospital includes restricted access.

“The hospital has been reduced to 3 entrances. East, West and the E.R and in the evenings that shuts down to just one,” adding that this will help in the inflow of patients.

Nicoson commented that the center bases a lot of their calls off of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We make decisions based on who can be tested who can not be tested and that’s based on some criteria from the CDC.”

He said he has absolute trust in his team, and is confident in their abilities moving forward.

“Our incident command center is ready. It’s ready for whatever we need to do. We’ve been doing this for a little while. We’ve taken 3 or 4 years to build up a team.”