Updated surge plan discussed during press conference

Posted on: 10/23/20

On Tuesday, Patti Davis, OHA president, participated in a governor’s press conference to announce revisions to the hospital surge plan. OHA was asked last week by the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) and the governor’s office to refine the surge plan that was developed in the Spring due to a record number of hospitalized patients.

The revised plan is a tiered logistical plan for patient movement. To view a summary, click here. OHA worked with a group of hospital leaders to develop it and further changes may be made as the situation evolves. It is mostly predicated on being a logistics plan, while we purposefully leave significant discretion for hospitals to use their own surge plans.

Yesterday, OHA hosted a conference call with hospital CEOs to discuss more details of the plan and sent an email to CEOs that included several detailed documents.

The success of the plan is dependent on the state’s willingness to remove certain barriers. These include using existing state-operated systems for statewide coordination, assisting with difficult to place patients who are ready to move from the hospital to a more appropriate care setting, and eliminating regulatory barriers to maximize transport options, increase workforce availability, and enhance capacity.

This is a very high-level plan that your individual hospital plans can fit in to. We still have more work to do collectively to implement it. Please let us know if you have suggestions for improvement.