Hospitals present to subcommittee about distribution of ARPA funds

Posted on: 9/10/21

On Tuesday, several hospitals were invited to present at the Joint Pandemic Funding Subcommittee on Health and Human Services (see agenda). This is the subcommittee that is working with a larger joint committee on distribution of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds by the Legislature. The applications for ARPA funding have not yet been released. Stay tuned for more information on the application process.

Jim Gebhart, president, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, and Jesse Campbell, MD, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, presented along with Jay Johnson, president & CEO, DRH Health, Duncan. Gebhart and Johnson did an exceptional job of giving an overview of hospitals in the infrastructure of public health pre-COVID and the current state of the industry. Their discussion about the mortality rate being 13% for those admitted inpatient for COVID with 49% mortality for those on vents was sobering. Campbell also answered questions about how many people have been admitted to the hospital or have died as the result of administration of the vaccine. He stated that the answer was zero across the Mercy system for mortality from the vaccine itself and inpatient admissions. 

For the hospital presentation PowerPoint, which OHA staff assisted the hospitals and their team in preparing, click here. OU Hospitals Trust Authority also spoke, and their presentation can be found here. Dr. Kayse Shrum, president, Oklahoma State University, also gave a pandemic presentation, but there were no materials shared with the public.

A good recap from the Journal Record can be found here; however, some of the quotes attributed to Dr. Campbell should have been attributed to Gebhart, who did 95% of the speaking for Mercy. (Sandra Harrison)