The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits (OKCNP) will host the 2021 Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence (ONE) Awards on April 24, 2021, in Tulsa, with limited attendance. The event will be livestreamed on OKCNP’s website as well. Leading up to the event, we are celebrating the 21 Oklahoma nonprofit finalists in seven categories. Oklahoma State University– Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS), is a finalist in the Health category.

“Our state has faced the unimaginable during the past year,” said Johnny Stephens, chief operations officer and senior vice president, OSU-CHS. “I am proud to say that OSU Center for Health Sciences stepped up to help our state meet these challenges head on. OSU-CHS was able to partner very early in the pandemic with OSU and the Animal Diagnostic Lab (OADDL) in Stillwater, thanks to the leadership of President Burns Hargis and Dr. Kayse Shrum. The exceptional faculty and staff at CHS, OSU Office of Research and OADDL were able to transform the existing diagnostic lab into one operational for human testing in 10 days. This provided a solution for the state of Oklahoma to expand its capacity for COVID-19 testing. When we started, we were one of the bottom five states for testing. In a short amount of time, Oklahoma was able to move into the upper half of states testing per capita. To date, the OSU Diagnostic Lab has processed more than 250,000 tests.”

OSU-CHS was founded in in 1972 in Tulsa. OSU-CHS is dedicated to educating and training osteopathic physicians and healthcare professionals, emphasizing on serving rural and underserved Oklahomans.

Project Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes (ECHO) was launched in 2016, followed by the National Center for Wellness and Recovery in 2017. In 2020, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, the first tribally affiliated medical school, welcomed its inaugural class.

“Education about COVID-19 and how to treat patients was shared to the healthcare workforce across the state through our Project ECHO platform,” said Stephens. “The COVID-19 Oklahoma Update ECHO was presented three times a week, with a total number of 31,600 participants to date. Our clinics transitioned to virtual visits, which allowed for more than 1,500 patients per week to see their doctor, and we placed 54 telemedicine carts in rural hospitals.”

More than 130 clinics have been held through Project ECHO for COVID-19. 31,000 physicians and community stakeholders across the state joined in the sessions. The savings from utilizing the Medical ECHO platform is estimated to be $1,173 per patient, saving Oklahoma millions of dollars.

OSU-CHS continues to produce graduates who are dedicated community leaders that are advancing medical research and innovating in education.

To learn more about OSU-CHS, visit their website: https://osumedicine.com/.

The ONE Awards is dedicated to honoring the outstanding work of Oklahoma nonprofits statewide. The ONE Awards also serves as the primary fundraising event for OKCNP. Proceeds from the ONE Awards enable OKCNP to serve communities throughout Oklahoma.

To learn more about the OKCNP ONE Awards or to watch the event, visit: https://www.okcnp.org /one-awards.