Doctors at many hospitals in Oklahoma are performing elective surgeries again.
Gov. Kevin Stitt lifted his order against elective surgeries, effective Friday. Ascension St. John, however, is not among the hospitals performing them again. CEO Mark McBride said doctors have been performing surgeries needed during the ban, but hospital officials thought it prudent to take a couple more days to work out the logistics for elective procedures.
"So, we are well-equipped for Monday, but what we had to consider was things like adequacy of personal protective equipment, the availability of testing for the patient and those type of things," McBride said.
Some procedures will be on hold even longer. Cosmetic, bariatric, cataract and living related kidney transplant surgeries won’t be done until May 18.
"Those patient populations are typically more vulnerable, so it’s out of an abundance of caution that we have taken this approach, and those are really, purely elective surgeries," McBride said.
Hillcrest and Saint Francis did resume elective surgeries on Friday. Saint Francis was around half its normal surgical schedule, mostly with patients who had procedures rescheduled.
Providers that perform surgeries at Oklahoma Surgical Hospital had also resumed elective surgeries.
All hospitals have been given guidelines about how to safely resume elective surgeries. If you have a procedure scheduled, check with your hospital about its specific policies.
