OCH reports preparedness for local spread of covid-19

GRAVETTE — Ozarks Community Hospital and Clinic report preparedness and a plan in place should the covid-19 virus spread locally.

Ozarks Community Hospital has increased the number of beds in the hospital from 25 to 41 in the event of a local outbreak, according to Scott Taylor, the assistant administrator at the hospital.

“With those additional beds, we have created an isolation wing for covidpositive patients,” Taylor wrote in an email. “This includes a ward dedicated to patients who will need to be put on ventilators,” he said.

“All plans we have put in place are predicated upon an influx of transfers of the more stable covid patients from the larger hospital systems in the area, allowing them to free up beds for the more critical cases that might come in. These plans also take into account a local outbreak for the immediate area,” he said.

OCH has been screening all staff, visitors and incoming patients throughout the organization since late February, he said.

“This involves questions provided by the CDC, taking the individual’s temperature and pulse oxygen level, and having the individual put on a mask regardless of the screening result,” he said.

Early in the pandemic, the number of test kits was limited, but the capability for covid-19 testing has expanded at the Gravette hospital and clinic.

“The amount of test kits made available to us had limited the amount of testing we were able to do for the first portion of the pandemic, as was the case for most facilities,” Taylor explained. “We have created our own allotment of test kits, per CDC guidelines, allowing us to vastly increase the amount of tests we are able to run systemwide,” he said.