Donal Harris Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Assuming it doesn’t get cancelled, this year’s Conference will be October 17. I’ve been intending to go for the past three years, but something always comes up. Not this year. Nothing could keep me away (except COVID-19). I am hoping it will not be cancelled as all other meetings have been since this bug popped up. The demonstrators this year are: Brent Bailey (who is from California and not Texas as I had wrongly assumed) and Joey Van Der Steeg from the Netherlands. I am sure pretty much everyone here knows who they are. I am looking forward to seeing them in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 This is the cover of our latest newsletter. Pretty cool. The piece was made by Russell Bartling. It will go in the gate SCABA makes each year. Standardized rings are passed out to anyone who wishes to craft something for the gate. This was his contribution. Very cool I think, and sums up the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 Should any SCABA members see this, what would you say the odds are of this year’s conference being canceled. Especially with Oklahoma now becoming more of a COVID-19 hot zone with each passing day. Our lab in Norman’s 7 day rolling average percentage of positive specimens is just a bit over 8% now. Just prior to the ending of the lockdown our rate was at about 1%. Our 7 day rolling average number of positive tests is very nearly a straight vertical line. Friday we had 40 positive PCR tests. The average number of positive results is a meaningless number because we are testing more patients, but the rise in the percentage of positive specimens indicates the situation.in Norman is getting worse and the increase is not a simple function of increased testing. We are averaging 400 per day now and from the rate orders are increasing, that number will very likely be 500 per day within a couple of weeks, especially if we begin testing specimens for OU as we have for the City, a few local businesses, and one of the larger churches in town. I ordered 30,000 NP swabs for collection kits today. If our current volume wore to remain stable at 400 per day that would last maybe 75 days, but it won’t. It will maybe last 60 if we are lucky. I will place another order on Monday before this vendor’s swab supply is exhausted. As for actual test kits, we have 3,800 on hand, but are bumping our par levels for that to 20,000. So far we have managed to maintain an 8 hour average turn around time for PCR testing while other labs are doing good to turn out results within 72 hours. It would of course require a trip to Norman, but we are performing antibody testing without physician orders at just a little over our incremental costs for testing if patients pay cash at the time their specimens are collected. $31 for antibody testing and $65 for PCR testing. Patients can get tests without orders if they pay cash at many pharmacies, but they seem to be primarily interested in profit. Homeland for example charges $85 dollars for an antibody test. We felt profiting off of panic was just not ethical. We see offering the tests as being more of a community service. Profiting off of elective procedures is one thing. Doing so off of this event is quite another thing entirely. All this to ask a question no one really knows the answer to. Is it still on? Something someone is much more likely to know is, are the two demonstrators still scheduled to come or have they they canceled? I was excited and really looking forward to seeing both of them. It is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but to me seeing their names on the schedule was almost like learning the Stones were coming to town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Heck, I would drive from NC to OK to see those guys in person, especially since everything else has been shut down this year. Best of luck to you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 Exactly my thought when I first learned who was booked fo be there. Bill told me it has been canceled. Very disappointing. Although I suppose if we were to promise to participate in a little civil unrest during the event, everything would be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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