CCMH continues to employ new up-to-date practices in the fight against COVID-19. We have two very exciting announcements! First, CCMH has recently acquired the ability to test for COVID-19 in-house! CCMH is now able to test patients in the ED for COVID-19 before being admitted to the hospital. The chemicals needed to run these tests are very limited, so we are only able to test those patients that need hospital admission. These tests allow for quicker placement of patients, and lets us continue to preserve PPE within the hospital.
Second, CCMH recently partnered with the Mayo Clinic in a clinical trial using COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma for acutely-ill patients. This plasma comes from patients who have already recovered from COVID-19, and contains antibodies that can help fight the virus. The process of using convalescent plasma has been known to the scientific community for decades, but the number of COVID-19 recovered patients has finally gotten high enough to begin collecting this plasma. CCMH is proud to take part in this study and do the most for our patients and the Lawton community.
For more information and the latest updates on COVID-19, you can visit coronavirus.health.ok.gov and www.cdc.gov.