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Local hospital stayed open during storm
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| The staff at Clear Lake Regional on Thursday loads patients onto a waiting helicopter to be evacuated to other hospitals before the hurricane. |
By NEESHA HOSEIN
Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster was the only area hospital to stay open during Hurricane Ike to provide medical services to the community.
The Emergency Department was fully functional, with a staff of doctors, nurses and medical personnel who were ready to handle whatever came through the doors.
“We are happy that we were able to stay open and provide medical services to the community,” said Mary Ann Hellinghausen, interim director of marketing and business development at Clear Lake Regional.
Hellinghausen said 250 patients were either discharged or evacuated to sister hospitals in Conroe and The Woodlands, before the hurricane made landfall. During the storm, the hospital cared for 131 in-patients and even delivered six babies on Sept. 12 and one on Sept. 13.
The hospital stayed running with back-up generators that kept the essential units, such as the emergency and operating rooms, powered.
Hellinghausen said much of the staff “came in with their bags packed ready to stay the night.” The hospital had in-house physicians in several different specialties available to provide services during the severe weather conditions.
“Everyone stepped up to the plate and did their part,” said Linda Farthing, director of HCA’s Pearland Emergency & Imaging Center and Alvin Emergency Center. “And everybody worked together as a team.”
Several of the food service and housekeeping crew stayed during the storm to help provide meals to staff and families of patients who remained in the hospital and to help clean up water leaks.
“The engineering staff was incredible,” Hellinghausen said. “And a couple of them went up on the roof of the Heart & Vascular Hospital during 70-plus mile-per-hour winds to check on the air conditioning and to be sure all was OK with the elevator shaft.”
The windows of the Heart & Vascular Hospital were built to withstand 225 mile-per-hour winds, and the Webster Fire Department and Nassau Bay Police were stationed there during the hurricane, which provided an extra sense of security, Hellinghausen said.
The hospital has been in overdrive post-Ike since it has received patients who would normally be headed to hospitals like UTMB or St. John Hospital in Nassau Bay, which closed during the storm.
A Disaster Medical Assistant Team has been stationed in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby in Webster to alleviate hospital overload. The unit is led by Roy Hunter, chief of the Clear Lake Emergency Medical Corps.
The unit set up on Monday, Sept. 15 and has seen “a little bit of everything” from minor emergencies to heart attacks and even a gun shot wound, Hunter said.
“Chief Hunter and I requested the DMAT team to be placed in this area,” said Abel Longoria, medical director of the Pearland and Alvin centers. “It is a FEMA-run unit like an emergency room in tents -- self-sufficient and they even have their own pharmacy. Their services are completely free.”
The unit will be there until Saturday.
Since the hurricane, the hospital almost doubled the amount of patients seen in one day and “we knew we were professionals before, but now we’ve proven it,” Longoria said.
He said the team has treated many hand injuries, lacerations and broken bones mostly from people falling off ladders and cleaning up tree limbs and debris, trying to do post-hurricane maintenance on their own.
In times of crisis, healthcare workers put their personal lives aside to help others, and HCA has a special program to give aid to their employees in need.
The HCA Hope Fund is an employee assistance program that helps HCA employees in times of need. It is funded by HCA employees, and 100 percent of donations go to assisting other HCA employees.
Since July 2005, when the Hope Fund began, HCA has received $9 million in donations and has helped 5,713 employees, giving $7 million in total assistance, Hellinghausen said.
Clear Lake Regional employees who suffered damages from Hurricane Ike can apply for assistance from the Hope Fund, which gives up to $2,500 to eligible employees for housing, utilities, food, clothing and other basic necessities.
“The hospital staff has done a phenomenal job transferring patients out and back in, as needed, and taking care of the patients in-house,” said Art Garza, the hospital’s associate administrator.
Garza said childcare is being provided for employees who are inconvenienced by lack daycare for their children. Along with the Hope Fund, HCA offers employees a discount on gasoline to ensure they can make it to work.
Necessities like ice and water are available to employees as well.
“The employees did an amazing job of putting their personal situations aside,” Garza said. “They made a lot of sacrifices to be here.”
St. John Hospital was slated to open in the middle of this week, a staff member said on Friday.
UTMB remained closed, although Mainland clinics are open.
Memorial Hermann Southeast on Astoria Boulevard is now fully functional, CEO George Gaston said Monday.
The Intensive Care Unit has been moved to another part of the hospital to allow for water damage repairs, but the emergency room and operation rooms did not sustain damage, Gaston said.
He said he has seen at least a 50 percent increase in emergency room traffic, and the hospital staff is working to obtain priveleges for UTMB doctors to see their patients at Southeast Memorial.
The Emergency Department was fully functional, with a staff of doctors, nurses and medical personnel who were ready to handle whatever came through the doors.
“We are happy that we were able to stay open and provide medical services to the community,” said Mary Ann Hellinghausen, interim director of marketing and business development at Clear Lake Regional.
Hellinghausen said 250 patients were either discharged or evacuated to sister hospitals in Conroe and The Woodlands, before the hurricane made landfall. During the storm, the hospital cared for 131 in-patients and even delivered six babies on Sept. 12 and one on Sept. 13.
The hospital stayed running with back-up generators that kept the essential units, such as the emergency and operating rooms, powered.
Hellinghausen said much of the staff “came in with their bags packed ready to stay the night.” The hospital had in-house physicians in several different specialties available to provide services during the severe weather conditions.
“Everyone stepped up to the plate and did their part,” said Linda Farthing, director of HCA’s Pearland Emergency & Imaging Center and Alvin Emergency Center. “And everybody worked together as a team.”
Several of the food service and housekeeping crew stayed during the storm to help provide meals to staff and families of patients who remained in the hospital and to help clean up water leaks.
“The engineering staff was incredible,” Hellinghausen said. “And a couple of them went up on the roof of the Heart & Vascular Hospital during 70-plus mile-per-hour winds to check on the air conditioning and to be sure all was OK with the elevator shaft.”
The windows of the Heart & Vascular Hospital were built to withstand 225 mile-per-hour winds, and the Webster Fire Department and Nassau Bay Police were stationed there during the hurricane, which provided an extra sense of security, Hellinghausen said.
The hospital has been in overdrive post-Ike since it has received patients who would normally be headed to hospitals like UTMB or St. John Hospital in Nassau Bay, which closed during the storm.
A Disaster Medical Assistant Team has been stationed in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby in Webster to alleviate hospital overload. The unit is led by Roy Hunter, chief of the Clear Lake Emergency Medical Corps.
The unit set up on Monday, Sept. 15 and has seen “a little bit of everything” from minor emergencies to heart attacks and even a gun shot wound, Hunter said.
“Chief Hunter and I requested the DMAT team to be placed in this area,” said Abel Longoria, medical director of the Pearland and Alvin centers. “It is a FEMA-run unit like an emergency room in tents -- self-sufficient and they even have their own pharmacy. Their services are completely free.”
The unit will be there until Saturday.
Since the hurricane, the hospital almost doubled the amount of patients seen in one day and “we knew we were professionals before, but now we’ve proven it,” Longoria said.
He said the team has treated many hand injuries, lacerations and broken bones mostly from people falling off ladders and cleaning up tree limbs and debris, trying to do post-hurricane maintenance on their own.
In times of crisis, healthcare workers put their personal lives aside to help others, and HCA has a special program to give aid to their employees in need.
The HCA Hope Fund is an employee assistance program that helps HCA employees in times of need. It is funded by HCA employees, and 100 percent of donations go to assisting other HCA employees.
Since July 2005, when the Hope Fund began, HCA has received $9 million in donations and has helped 5,713 employees, giving $7 million in total assistance, Hellinghausen said.
Clear Lake Regional employees who suffered damages from Hurricane Ike can apply for assistance from the Hope Fund, which gives up to $2,500 to eligible employees for housing, utilities, food, clothing and other basic necessities.
“The hospital staff has done a phenomenal job transferring patients out and back in, as needed, and taking care of the patients in-house,” said Art Garza, the hospital’s associate administrator.
Garza said childcare is being provided for employees who are inconvenienced by lack daycare for their children. Along with the Hope Fund, HCA offers employees a discount on gasoline to ensure they can make it to work.
Necessities like ice and water are available to employees as well.
“The employees did an amazing job of putting their personal situations aside,” Garza said. “They made a lot of sacrifices to be here.”
St. John Hospital was slated to open in the middle of this week, a staff member said on Friday.
UTMB remained closed, although Mainland clinics are open.
Memorial Hermann Southeast on Astoria Boulevard is now fully functional, CEO George Gaston said Monday.
The Intensive Care Unit has been moved to another part of the hospital to allow for water damage repairs, but the emergency room and operation rooms did not sustain damage, Gaston said.
He said he has seen at least a 50 percent increase in emergency room traffic, and the hospital staff is working to obtain priveleges for UTMB doctors to see their patients at Southeast Memorial.
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