Nurses get up-close look at Hurricane Irene's fury
September 12, 2011
Dorchester General RNs handle evacuation in stride, credit planning and
communication
Ryan Foster, RN
Jane Flowers, RN
In a
span of four hours, nurses at Dorchester General
Hospital felt the full
force of Hurricane Irene. After high winds and heavy rains began on the
evening of Aug. 27 at the facility in
Cambridge,
Md., so did a leak in the roof of
the hospital's laboratory.
"The lab started around 9 (p.m.) with the beginning of their leaks," said
Ryan Foster, RN, MS, CNML, NEA-BC, manager, critical care and
multi-specialty care.
Foster and Jane Flowers, RN, MSN, CNOR, manager, surgical and ambulatory
services, were among the team members manning the hospital's command center,
which opened at noon Aug. 27. The team managed leaks in several areas, but
none as serious as in the lab.
"By 1 (a.m. Aug. 28), we were making rounds every half hour from top to
bottom [of the building]," Foster said. "By 1 o'clock, the wind had really
picked up, the rain was coming down in full force and the leak in the lab
was no longer a leak."
Ambulances line up outside of Dorchester General
Hospital in Cambridge, Md.,
to begin evacuating patients Aug. 28 after Hurricane Irene damaged the
facility and forced its closure.
"It was
like you were standing outside," Flowers said. "It was pretty dramatic."
Ninety minutes later, Dorchester nurses
were planning for a 7 a.m. evacuation of patients to other Shore Health
System facilities.
"At around 2:30 (a.m.), we finally decided there was nothing else we could
do to try and salvage [the lab]," Foster said.
Nurses at Dorchester and throughout the
DC/Maryland/Virginia region credited planning, communication and teamwork
with helping them manage before, during and after Irene.
The day after Hurricane Irene swept through the
DC/Maryland/Virginia region, large fans were brought in to dry out Dorchester General Hospital.
"We
almost overprepare," said AnnMarie Hernandez, RN, a staff nurse in
Dorchester's ED. "It went so smooth."
At Stafford (Va.)
Hospital, LeaAnne Wilkinson, RN, BSN, patient care supervisor, was preparing
staff for an Aug. 24 disaster preparedness exercise when an earthquake
struck the region Aug. 23. "We had just looked that morning at our emergency
preparedness binder," Wilkinson said. "We had the forms all sitting right
there."
Cynthia Parker, RN, BSN, CCRN, nurse manager, MICU/SICU at Mary Washington
Hospital in Fredericksburg, Va., said Wilkinson and her other colleagues
throughout Mary Washington Healthcare had plenty of practice before Irene
even arrived.
RNs in Dorchester General's command center kept in
touch with Shore Health System colleagues via video conferencing technology.
Two
days after the earthquake, a powerful thunderstorm knocked out power briefly
at Mary
Washington
Hospital as staff were
keeping an eye on Irene's path.
"With the earthquake, we immediately set up areas for possible casualties
because we are a trauma hospital," Parker said. "The drill we were working
on really focuses on communication between the ED and ICU and elsewhere.
That helped a lot as far as the staff feeling organized and prepared."
Parker said preparations for Irene included placing flashlights with fresh
batteries in each room and moving some patients to "core" rooms in the
horseshoe-shaped ICU, away from rooms with windows.
"Was it intense at times? Yes," said Mary Alice Vanhoy, RN, MSN, CEN, CPEN,
NREMT-P, manager, Shore Health System's Queen Anne's Emergency Center,
Grasonville, Md. "No one panicked. It made us think back
to our plan. I don't think (nurses) ever got to the point they were
overwhelmed because this is something we prepared for."
At Dorchester, which reopened Sept. 2,
nurses recently practiced an evacuation drill that included loss of elevator
services.
To ensure communication wasn't lost at Anne
Arundel
Medical
Center, Annapolis, Md.,
Sherry Perkins, RN, PhD, CNO/senior vice president of patient care services,
said nurses and staff members received backup mobile phones.
Anne Arundel communicated before, during and after the hurricane in numerous
ways, via emails to staff, fliers at all desks, overhead messages to
patients and staff and with nurses making regular rounds to talk to patients
about storm preparations and weather reports.
"The care never stopped because the nurses never stopped," said Perkins,
whose facility had 20 patient rooms and six other areas affected by water
damage from Irene, all of which have been returned to service. "They showed
up and gave excellent care like they do every day."
The storm's approach caused Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C.,
to expedite the transfer of its remaining patients to the
National
Naval Medical
Center, Bethesda, Md.
About 30 patients who were scheduled to be moved Aug. 27 instead were
transferred a day earlier as Walter Reed prepared to close its doors. The Bethesda facility, according to news reports, is expected
to change its name this month to
Walter
Reed National
Military
Medical
Center.
