Integris Opens Portland Location To House COVID-19 Patient Overflow

INTEGRIS' hospital's Portland Avenue campus is back open for COVID-19 patient overflow.

Read Related: Integris Reopens Portland Ave. Campus For COVID-19 Overflow As Cases Surge

INTEGRIS said 40 beds were available at this Portland campus, and they have already moved four people there.

Currently, INTEGRIS is caring for a little less than 100 COVID-19 patients across all their facilities, and more than half of them are at the campus off of Northwest Expressway. Officials said that campus, with this recent surge, is now starting to feel the strain. The Portland campus is looking to help with that.

While they have more space now, keeping it staffed will be a different story.

The Portland location will be staffed by outside contractors, but if this surge continues INTEGRIS says finding doctors and nurses will prove difficult.

“Our constraint right now is not space, it’s these caregivers. It’s these caregivers being able to take care of these patients,” says Kerri Bayer, the Chief Nursing Executive for INTEGRIS Health.

Officials with the Oklahoma Hospital Association say unlike the last surge, the difference this time is that the supply of Personal Protective Equipment is well stocked.

Most hospital administrators have also laid out contingency plans to maximize space.