The abnormally early ice storm that left hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans without power is creating unique hardships for the state’s health care providers.
Ice storms might be rare, but Dr. Steven Crawford says their damage looks like that of a hurricane, and providers operating in those crises have to take similar measures. Crawford is the senior associate dean at OU College of Medicine, a family physician and a member of the Oklahoma State Medical Association.
In both ice storms and hurricanes, doctors offices have to find replacements for phone services and for their prescription monitoring services, usually working with a hospital. Hospital emergency rooms also tend to see patients who have electronic medical devices, like respirators, that they can’t use.
There are critical resources hospitals can’t replace, like access to electronic medical records.
"If you don’t have power, you don’t have the ability to know what they’re on or other issues," Crawford said.
Angie Batton is the CEO of the Pushmataha Family Medical Center in Clayton. This storm missed the southeastern portion of the state where Clayton is, but she shared some lessons she’s learned from the past.
Generators are critical because of processes that can’t go out. The lab, for example, has to maintain conditions like humidity for its results to be accurate. Federally qualified health centers, like the ones she runs, help administer the state’s Vaccines for Children program.
"We have refrigerators and freezers that they have to stay in, and they have to be running all the time," Batton said. "If they get too hot or too cold — either way — it can mess the vaccine up."
She said their generator can work for up to 12 hours. After that, they have to find somewhere else to take and store their vaccines.
