March 20, 2020
To:

Joint Special Committee on Coronavirus Response

Re:

COVID-19 response

Co-Chair Roblan, Co-Chair Holvey and members of the Joint Special Committee on Coronavirus
Response:
For the record, my name is Danny Jacobs, and I am the president of Oregon Health & Science
University.
First, I’d like to acknowledge that following proper etiquette for the hearing while practicing
social distancing may be difficult, so please accept my apologies if we are not able to properly
address the member of the committee in answering questions. As demonstrated by the nature
of this hearing, this is an unprecedented time for Oregon, our nation and the world. On behalf
of OHSU, thank you for your leadership as we work together to slow the spread of COVID-19.
We have prepared to the best of our ability. We’ve seen an extraordinary effort across OHSU
and have created unprecedented strategic partnerships with other Oregon health care
providers to put the necessary systems and processes in place to be able to meet the health
care needs of Oregonians in the coming months. We have done everything in our power to
prepare for a worst-case scenario and prepare to treat those who need our care.
Based on our analysis of what has transpired in other countries and in other states, OHSU is
planning for a scenario in which OHSU and other hospitals reach critical capacity, within weeks.
In this modeling, hospital beds and intensive care units will be full, and difficult decisions will
need to be made around the placement and care of patients. Physicians, nurses and staff will
become exhausted and many may become sick themselves, further increasing the workload for
those still caring for patients.
For OHSU this situation offers a very unique challenge because our hospital operates at about
95% capacity under normal circumstances, meaning that we are generally always full with
Oregonians who require non-COVID-19 related hospitalization.

 Because we know the virus is in the community and likely widespread, the best approach to the
situation is two-fold: One, have widespread testing and two, take extreme social distancing
measures to slow the spread of the virus so that less people will require hospital-based care at
the same time.
We fully support social distancing and other measures the Governor has taken and believe
more extreme measures should be considered. Social distancing should work in slowing the
spread of the virus, however, absent wide spread testing, and with the increasing number of
positive cases, there may not be the real-time evidence to know if the measures are effective.
Absent clear evidence, OHSU and health systems across the state have a moral obligation to
prepare for a worst-case scenario because if we do not, and we underprepare, more
Oregonians could die.
I understand that the Oregon legislature is faced with making very tough decisions. I
understand the long-term impact of your decisions from a social and economic standpoint are
bleak. But this is not simply a “rough day at work” for our health care providers. Calling this
situation “challenging” is not adequate to describe what we may be about to experience.
While I’ve known since the say I set foot on OHSU’s campus that OHSU was special, it’s often in
the face of adversity that people’s true colors shine through and in the past few weeks I’ve seen
what the people at OHSU and the people of Oregon are made of. The integrity and dedication I
see as each new day brings a different set of challenges makes me incredibly proud of the
people our organization is made up of, and who Oregonians are as a community.
There is no doubt that there are difficult times ahead. COVID-19 will continue to challenge
OHSU as an organization, our state and our country; but I know we will all continue to rise up
and respond for the benefit of our people here in Oregon and beyond.
I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Peter Graven to talk about the modeling he has done to help
predict the hospital-based needs for OHSU and then Dr. Renee Edwards, Chief Medical Officer
for OHSU will speak especially to what the modeling means for OHSU and Oregon.
Thank you.

Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., FACS
President
Oregon Health & Science University