NEW ORLEANS – Ochsner Health marked the one-year anniversary of the pandemic’s Louisiana debut by releasing metrics that tell the story of patient care, research, philanthropy and vaccinations during this unprecedented time.
Here is Ochsner’s pandemic year by the numbers:
Patient Care
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- Discharged more than 10,000 COVID-19 inpatients across our system and partners
- Received more than 159,000 calls on our COVID-19 information hotline.
- Administered 912,000 COVID-19 tests, including more than 210,000 at community testing sites.
- Added 179 ICU beds in New Orleans (102 beds) and Shreveport (77 beds) to care for increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients.
- Ochsner redeployed more than 2,300 employees across the system to areas where they were needed most.
- Ramped up telehealth offerings, conducting over 324,000 virtual visits in 2020 – a nearly 10,000% increase, compared to just 3,303 in 2019.
- Increased the number of patients with chronic conditions participating in digital monitoring programs by 67%.
- A 1201% increase in the number of N95 masks needed by staff – Nearly 2.3 million compared to 176,000 in the year prior.
- A 46% increase in the number of surgical masks – Approximately 3.1 million in the pandemic year, compared with 1.5 million previously.
- A 443% increase in sterile gowns used by frontline staff – from 1,500,316 used in the year before COVID-19 to 6,658,661.
 Research
- Enrolled nearly 6,000 residents of the greater New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas in COVID-19 Prevalence Studies.
- Enrolled 515 patients into COVID-19 vaccine trials.
- Produced the first sequences of the virus from the New Orleans area, collecting more than 10,700 specimens.
Supporting our Healthcare Heroes and Community
- Ochsner provided free childcare for more than 1,500 children when in-school learning closed so that our frontline workers could continue caring for patients in need.
- Ochsner received hundreds of in-kind donations including items such as PPE, toiletries, goodie bags and homemade treats for our healthcare heroes.
- Local restaurants and businesses donated more than 36,000 meals and snacks to frontline workers across the system.
- Ochsner created the Pandemic Response Fund, raising more than $1.5 million, providing medical supplies, equipment and training to frontline staff while also providing financial assistance to patients in need.
- Ochsner’s iO team donated over 20,000 windowed masks to teachers across Louisiana.
COVID-19 Vaccines
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- Administered more than 200,000 vaccine doses since December 14, 2020.
- Completed the vaccination series for about 82,000 individuals.
- Launched 20 community vaccination sites and counting.
