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Ocshner Health, Louisiana’s largest non-profit, academic, healthcare system, is not only dealing with the major catastrophic disaster resulting from Super Hurricane Ida which hit this past weekend, but is still coping with the traumas of the ongoing health pandemic of Covid-19 with markedly increased hospitalizations over the past two months.

On Wednesday, Ocshner held a press conference led by the President and CEO Warner Thomas. Below is the rough transcript of the first part of that Zoom press conference. (The transcript has been lightly edited. For the complete interview, watch the video:  

How challenging for the State of Louisiana is Covid-19's omnipresent Delta variant? What impact is it having upon the state's premier health system? 

Today, the President and CEO of Ochsner Health, Warner Thomas, was a guest on Morning Joe to discuss the raging Covid-19 Delta virus. Thomas said it is the fourth surge in Louisiana.  During the interview, CEO Thomas talked about the impact the virus was having upon medical services, even to the point that over the past ten days, Ochsner had to turn away 300 transfer patients from other facilities due to the level of COVID patients Ochsner is treating and due to the level and pressure on staffing.

Ochsner is Louisiana’s largest nonprofit academic health center and is the state’s largest private employer. The health system has facilities in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish, Kenner, the River Parishes, Baton Rouge, the Northshore, the West Bank, Raceland, Houma, St. Bernard, Shreveport, and in Mississippi.