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OSU Medical Center Designated as COVID-19 Hospital in Surge Plan

Oklahoma State University

Tulsa’s OSU Medical Center will serve as a COVID-19 hospital in the event of a surge in cases.

A hospital in the Oklahoma City area will be designated as a COVID-19 hospital for that area of the state in the coming days.

OSU Medical Center Chief of Staff Dr. Mo Som said other hospitals in the state are ready to increase their capacities by 40% and should not transfer COVID-19 patients before they hit that limit.

"This is essentially a safety outlet if we should, in fact, hit the surge," Som said.

To complete Oklahoma’s surge plan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has surveyed around a dozen sites that can quickly be converted into hospitals for displaced patients.

"They will represent what we will go to if we need non-COVID folk accommodated in other hospital settings," said Secretary of Health Jerome Loughridge.

Gov. Kevin Stitt said he’s confident Oklahoma is prepared for its peak as things stand now.

"The state model moves the peak up to April 21 but shows we’ll need fewer hospital beds but more ICU beds — but still well under Oklahoma’s current capacity," Stitt said.

Stitt is currently relying on the model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which projected Friday Oklahoma's peak in hospital resource use would come April 27. That projection estimated Oklahoma would need 1,414 hospital beds, 279 intensive care unit beds and 236 ventilators — all under the state's maximum capacities.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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