..., my friend and ... Manager for Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, recently experienced the force of Hurricane Isaac firsthand. On August 25, ... said all eyes were on Isaac as it gathered strength, organized power, and prepared for landfall. As the storm’s trajectory swung from Florida in the east toward the Louisiana coast in the west, the hospital began gearing up for violent weather. Midday on Monday the 27th, the administrative officials determined that the hospital would assemble staff Team A that evening (Team A rode the storm out on the job, and Team B was post-storm relief).
At 11:00 p.m., the administrators summoned ... with the rest of Team A and initiated the lockdown process. They distributed identification armbands to each arriving individual and then assigned the staff 12-hour-shift work schedules and rooms. Matters became complicated, however, when the armband printer malfunctioned. Hurricane Isaac made landfall early on August 30th, mere hours after Hurricane Katrina’s seventh anniversary. At 2:30 a.m., Ochsner Medical Center lost power, and the backup generators kicked into high gear.
Partial electricity distribution forced management to begin prioritizing. Strategically placed, with extension cords bridging the gaps between power supply locations, air chillers competed against the rising temperatures, which, in the instrument rooms, rocketed to figures above 100°F. Due to the high temperatures, the blood bank and embryo refrigerators, located on the second floor, struggled to hold their ground. Corpse storage also developed into a problem. At the onset of the onslaught, two corpses fit easily in refrigeration. By the end, cramped quarters threatened to bruise eight bodies, and the only alternative was removal from storage that would lead to accelerated decomposition.
With 1,500-1,600 staff, patients, and family members, plus pets, locked up for days on end, serving food in and from the one functional cafeteria was a substantial challenge. Three meals per day were doled out from 7-9 a.m., 11-1 p.m., and 5-7 p.m.; ... had several very rushed breakfasts with administrative meetings at 8:00 a.m. There was no menu; all meals were take it, leave it, or miss it. With the enormous load of orders, the staff quickly abandoned traditional inventory tracking methods and resorted to clicker-counters to keep abreast of the rapidly decreasing food supply.
As the storm intensity mounted, rising seawaters and torrential rain threatened to engulf bowl-shaped New Orleans. Providentially, the storm surge did not breach any levees. It did overflow some levees and flood certain sectors of the city, though. Nonetheless, Ochsner Medical Center and ... survived the fury of Hurricane Isaac.
Dianne Williamson, in a disaster preparedness survey of thirty-eight hospitals, discovered that nearly one in five of the hospitals had combated flooding disasters in the past decade and concluded with an article on the survey in which she said, “There is value in having disaster contingency and recovery plans in place to mitigate potential harm to patients.” Ochsner Medical Center successfully employed a disaster plan in the recent hurricane crisis, but it demands improvement. In order best to facilitate their patients’ care, the Ochsner Board of Directors should authorize the construction of a new, central Medical Center.
The simple benefits from a change of geography alone afford grounds for such a decision. Bodies of water surround New Orleans: Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico are all next-door neighbors. Much of New Orleans, however, lies below sea level. Constructing a new facility on higher ground, perhaps in Mandeville or Covington north of Lake Pontchartrain, would eliminate much of the risk of flooding. This would reduce patient stress and provide the hospital with another location to serve them. Hospital invalids have enough concerns.
According to Profiles in Science, Charles Drew, “the Father of the Blood Bank,” stipulated that blood should be stored “in refrigerators that were reliably efficient and protected from electrical outages.” During Hurricane Isaac, management had to consolidate the blood bank refrigerators, and refrigeration integrity concerns began to surface. With the “safety of stored blood among chief concerns for [the] transfusion medicine community”, a new facility on higher ground with more reliable power must certainly be acceptable (“Safety”).
Structural improvements should also allure Ochsner toward constructing a Medical Center north of Lake Pontchartrain. The current main Medical Center is actually composed of two buildings connected by a bridge. In one building is located all of the food, water, and the one functional cafeteria, but in the other building ... manages the laboratories. If the hurricane were to have compromised the bridge (a question raised during the storm), then that would have isolated a significant portion of the staff. Erecting a single building facility with more square footage would eliminate this quandary.
Hurricanes are capable of wreaking widespread destruction, and they demand readiness from those in their paths. The construction of a new edifice would enable the hospital to expand as well as better protect their patients. In addition, blood bank refrigerators and other equipment would be more stable. Finally, the staff would face fewer difficulties and dangers while undergoing the trauma of such a storm. Despite financial objections, Ochsner Medical Center must create a central base on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain.
Works Cited
.... Telephone Interview. 4 Sept. 2012.
“Safety of Stored Blood Among Chief Concerns for Transfusion of Medicine Community.” Transfusion. EurekAlert!, 15 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Sept. 2012.
Williamson, Dianne, et al. "The Preparedness of Hospital Health Information Services For System Failures Due To Internal Disasters." Health Information Management Journal 38.2 (2009): 18-26. Academic Search Complete, n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2012.
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