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Hospitals have emergency plans in place for disasters
By VALERIE JONES
With Hurricane Ike expected to rip through most of Harris County, residents are urged to take necessary precautions for what officials expect to be a very powerful hurricane.
During a time of many unknowns, local hospitals are staying prepared, making sure that emergency procedures will be implemented smoothly, if necessary.
Almeta West, occupational house and safety manager at Houston Northwest Medical Center, said the hospital has an emergency operation plan that goes into effect whenever the area is under a hurricane watch.
“The plan is mirrored after the hospital incident command system and National Incident Management System (NIMS),” West said. “We have an organizational chart that we follow and our CEO becomes our incident commander. There are different layers of people put in different roles, depending on how large the disaster is.”
West said the hospital has backup generators to provide power if the electricity goes out.
“We have two separate electrical feeds that go into our facility from the power company,” she said. “They will last forever as long as you have diesel fuel. We have contracts with outside fuel vendors to bring in diesel fuel.”
West mentioned that Houston Northwest doesn’t have the same risks as hospitals in Galveston might have.
“Regarding patients in ICU, the decision if the patient stays or is sent to other facilities depends on where the hurricane is hitting and what forced winds are predicted to be out here,” she said. “If we decided to send the patients to other facilities, it would be a safe place where there are beds available.”
Jan Terry, administrative director of Ancillary Services for Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center Hospital, said CFMCH also structures their emergency preparedness plan after NIMS.
“It allows us to be flexible and expand within our roles and it allows us to make changes as we go, if needed,” Terry said.
The day before Tropical Storm Eduoard hit Houston in early Aug., Terry said the hospital was already in preparation: monitoring the weather, considering cancellation of surgeries for the following day and getting extra security.
“We met three times that day to make sure everyone was on course,” she said. “We put ourselves on standby and began looking at our resources to see who was going to be on our A-team. Those are the employees that stay at the hospital 24-7 until the disaster goes away.”
Terry also said the hospital made sure to have backup for dialysis patients and inventory, as well as backup generators for ICU.
“We made sure to have plenty of fuel and the life support equipment is plugged into an emergency generator so the patients are all in good shape,” she said. “We have satellite phones, walkie-talkies and hand radios. We’re supposed to be able to withstand as an organization for 96 hours.”
CFMCH is involved with the Catastrophic Medical Operations Center (CMOC), made up of people in the city of Houston from different health organizations that work together to have a response group that meets the needs of the community, Terry said.
“If we had to evacuate the hospitals, they would be able to help arrange that,” she said.
Terry said the last time the hospital’s emergency plan was implemented was in September 2005 during Hurricane Rita.
She mentioned that going on diversion (turning patients away and sending them to another hospital because of lack of space) is a rare occurrence at the hospital unless it’s a dire emergency.
“During a storm like this where the whole community is involved, you wouldn’t see many hospitals diverting because the community needs your help,” she said. “When a lot of hospitals are on diversion, it really backs the healthcare system up. It can become a real crisis.”
During a time of many unknowns, local hospitals are staying prepared, making sure that emergency procedures will be implemented smoothly, if necessary.
Almeta West, occupational house and safety manager at Houston Northwest Medical Center, said the hospital has an emergency operation plan that goes into effect whenever the area is under a hurricane watch.
“The plan is mirrored after the hospital incident command system and National Incident Management System (NIMS),” West said. “We have an organizational chart that we follow and our CEO becomes our incident commander. There are different layers of people put in different roles, depending on how large the disaster is.”
West said the hospital has backup generators to provide power if the electricity goes out.
“We have two separate electrical feeds that go into our facility from the power company,” she said. “They will last forever as long as you have diesel fuel. We have contracts with outside fuel vendors to bring in diesel fuel.”
West mentioned that Houston Northwest doesn’t have the same risks as hospitals in Galveston might have.
“Regarding patients in ICU, the decision if the patient stays or is sent to other facilities depends on where the hurricane is hitting and what forced winds are predicted to be out here,” she said. “If we decided to send the patients to other facilities, it would be a safe place where there are beds available.”
Jan Terry, administrative director of Ancillary Services for Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center Hospital, said CFMCH also structures their emergency preparedness plan after NIMS.
“It allows us to be flexible and expand within our roles and it allows us to make changes as we go, if needed,” Terry said.
The day before Tropical Storm Eduoard hit Houston in early Aug., Terry said the hospital was already in preparation: monitoring the weather, considering cancellation of surgeries for the following day and getting extra security.
“We met three times that day to make sure everyone was on course,” she said. “We put ourselves on standby and began looking at our resources to see who was going to be on our A-team. Those are the employees that stay at the hospital 24-7 until the disaster goes away.”
Terry also said the hospital made sure to have backup for dialysis patients and inventory, as well as backup generators for ICU.
“We made sure to have plenty of fuel and the life support equipment is plugged into an emergency generator so the patients are all in good shape,” she said. “We have satellite phones, walkie-talkies and hand radios. We’re supposed to be able to withstand as an organization for 96 hours.”
CFMCH is involved with the Catastrophic Medical Operations Center (CMOC), made up of people in the city of Houston from different health organizations that work together to have a response group that meets the needs of the community, Terry said.
“If we had to evacuate the hospitals, they would be able to help arrange that,” she said.
Terry said the last time the hospital’s emergency plan was implemented was in September 2005 during Hurricane Rita.
She mentioned that going on diversion (turning patients away and sending them to another hospital because of lack of space) is a rare occurrence at the hospital unless it’s a dire emergency.
“During a storm like this where the whole community is involved, you wouldn’t see many hospitals diverting because the community needs your help,” she said. “When a lot of hospitals are on diversion, it really backs the healthcare system up. It can become a real crisis.”
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