On Thursday, November 27, the Oklahoma State Department of Health moved Tulsa County into Tier 3 of the state’s hospital surge plan. The metric used to place hospitals in Tier 3 is that 20 percent of the beds must be occupied by COVID-19 patients for three consecutive days.
It takes 3 consecutive days of patient occupancy data for the state to move a region up/down a tier. Central, western, and northeastern Oklahoma are also in Tier 3.
Dr. Dale Bratzler, professor and chair of the health administration and policy department at the Hudson College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma, explains what this means, “For patients, this likely would mean deferred or delayed care,” he said. “Some elective operations, particularly those that are more complex that might require transient ICU care could be delayed. Patients with lower acuity illness might be transferred to specialty surgical hospitals or post-acute facilities (such as rehab hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, etc.) to receive care. Patients could be transferred to other communities or regions where beds may be available.”
As of Wednesday, November 25, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was 93% higher than the record set in July. This means that one out of five patients in Tulsa hospitals are suffering from COVID-19.
Hospital officials are fearful that numbers will rise precipitously if more precautionary measures are not taken.
Dr. Cameron Mantor, the Acting Chief Medical Officer at OU Health, implores the public to take precautions. “Unless we do something differently, I don’t know what the numbers will be but they certainly don’t appear to be going down…You have to help us. You have to help us fix this.”
He stated that hospitals are seeing an “increasing and overwhelming” number of critically ill patients.
“This is incredibly serious, Beds are finite. Staff is finite.” As of Wednesday, there are only 43 ICU beds available through the state.
His biggest concern is that patients with cancer or who have been in an automobile accident will have no place to go. “It’s absolutely a reality. We’ve had to turn patients away at times, but we’re managing our patient population on an hourly basis.”
On Friday, November 27, OSDH reported 3,225 new COVID-19 cases and 24 more deaths related to the virus. The death toll now stands at 1,704, according to state health officials. 187,567 cases have been confirmed across the state since March, and 32,894 were active as of Thursday.
The state-wide seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is at a record 3,318, with Tulsa County’s average soaring to a record high of 464.
Mantor emphasized that the hospitals cannot stop the pandemic. “Only the people outside of them can.”
