By Margaret Delaney
The Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans is hosting Super Bowl LIX. As the official medical provider of the Super Bowl, Ochsner Health is coordinating medical services and emergency care surrounding the big game and associated activities. Dr. Jeffrey Kuo is leading the charge as the chair of the medical subcommittee of the New Orleans Super Bowl LIX Host Committee.
Kuo is an ER doctor by trade and serves as the Ochsner system medical director of emergency management and security. He is responsible for patient flow (the movement of patients inside of hospitals and between hospitals) and practices as an emergency department physician across the hospital system.
When did preparations begin for the Super Bowl’s medical committee? How did you start the process?
The announcement came out that New Orleans would host the Super Bowl LIX over four years ago — that launched into years of preparation for the game. I remember having conversations about it when it was announced.
Then, we ramped up our medical operations and medical coordination discussions over a year ago. I started meeting with the NFL and some private entities that the NFL brings in for the Super Bowl.
What they found pretty quickly — and what I realized pretty quickly — was that we’ve really done this before. We’ve provided medical services for events like the College Football Playoffs, a national championship, a Super Bowl in 2013 and big events like Jazz Fest.
On top of that, our history with the Saints and with the NFL has really factored into our expertise and leadership, and it will definitely help us best serve our community during the Super Bowl.
What makes the Super Bowl different than a regular season game in terms of medical preparedness?
We have about three and a half hours of a football game that we cover medical operations for — we do this every week for the New Orleans Saints.
The Super Bowl has a week’s worth of events leading up to it and surrounding the big game — that’s different than a normal football game.
As an ER doctor, the medical aspect of it is the same. We are going to do everything we can to provide exceptional health care for every patient that we see, whether that’s a football player, a coach, an NFL member, a member of our community or a visitor coming into New Orleans.
One of those events, for instance, is the Super Bowl Experience at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. We are going to have thousands and thousands of people coming through. We know there are the inevitable medical issues that arise or people get injured when they’re running the 40-yard dash at the event, and we’ll be there to help provide medical coverage for that.
We also have multiple urgent cares at Ochsner Health that are situated downtown and in the surrounding areas that are going to be increasing our coverage hours.
We can’t minimize any one particular event. We have to be ready for anything that comes up at any of these events.
How many medical professionals are stationed within the stadium?
We are covering first aid stations along the entire footprint of the Superdome during the game and before the game itself in collaboration with Acadian Ambulance.
For other events, such as Super Bowl Experience, we are working in collaboration with New Orleans EMS to provide health care for those that are in need in that setting along with other large-scale events.
We have upward of 200 health employees, which includes physicians and resident physicians, MPs, nurses, paramedics and more, who are going to be the core team for these events.
On game day, we are staffing numerous first aid stations that are going to be inside of the Superdome. We are strategically placed so that we can respond to medical needs in an efficient manner.
I’m also going to be supporting the medical needs of the players and the NFL staff during the game on the field. My role with the New Orleans Saints is to be the physician that provides medical coverage for the players in the event of something catastrophic like that. I’ve been doing that for 16 seasons.
When looking at preparedness, we often look to Damar Hamlin with the Buffalo Bills, the player in Cincinnati whose heart stopped beating during a football game a couple of years ago.
As that situation was happening in Cincinnati, the head of the medical staff for the Saints called me within 3 minutes of the incident. He said, “Jeff, do you have any thoughts?” I gave him my perspective on what was going on medically. His next question was, “Any other thoughts?”
I told him, “If that happens in New Orleans, we are 100% ready for it.”
That’s what we do. We prepare and we drill and we train for scenarios like that. What I like to say is: “When a crisis occurs, you don’t want to rise up to the occasion. You want to fall back on your training.”
How is this a statewide operation? How do other cities, and state-led organizations help boost the medical staff/committee?
There’s no better way to provide and prioritize the overall health of our community than to partner with local, regional, state and federal entities to make sure that our city is ready, our community is ready and our region is ready.
We meet very regularly with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the Louisiana Health Department, the New Orleans Health Department, New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, New Orleans EMS and Acadian Ambulance — that’s just to name a few.
I think that ultimately, we all know the importance of being prepared. We all know the importance of representing the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana in the best way possible.
We hope that we’re never needed, because we’d love it for everyone to be healthy and nobody to get hurt. But if someone does need us, the community can be rest assured that we are prepared, and we are here to serve all.
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