Hospital status system helps in state evacuation
Mississippi network already in place
A web-based system for monitoring bed availability and transferring patients to other facilities helped mitigate the effects of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, says Jim Craig, director of health protection for the Mississippi Department of Health.
The system was founded in 1996 in response to a large-scale exodus of physicians from Mississippi because of its tort laws, Craig notes. That exodus, he says, resulted in some health services not being available in parts of the state, and created the need to monitor health care availability.
As part of the planning for potential terrorist attacks, Craig adds, the system was enhanced to allow the tracking of bed availability throughout the state.
Staff at the Mississippi Hospital Association (MHA) "were asked to physically call all the hospitals and ask them to log on to the status system," notes Shawn Lea, an MHA spokesperson. "[The questions were], ‘How many beds are available at your hospital and do you have the staff to handle them, or do you need assistance?'
"It's a computer network that can be used in emergency situations to evacuate, for example, dialysis patients who need power and water [for their treatment]," Lea adds.
In the response to Hurricane Katrina, the system was used to transfer patients in advance of the storm to make space for those who might need care in its wake, Craig explains. "When the storm comes to town, we discharge those who can be discharged without risk, and move [others] through the system to make beds available."
Through use of the system, Craig says, beds were opened up within 72 hours of landfall through both discharge and distribution, and within six days, close to 2,000 beds were available. A portable, 100-bed hospital was moved in and set up near Hancock County Hospital in Bay St. Louis, MS, the only facility to be closed as a result of the hurricane, he notes.
As part of the state's contingency plan, 23 contract ambulances were sent from other areas of the state in advance of the hurricane, Craig says. After landfall, he adds, another 83 ground ambulances — from Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and as far away as Colorado — were sent down to assist in the emergency operations, as well as more than 100 air ambulances.
Those ambulances were filled with patients with special needs, including nursing home patients and those discharged from hospitals to move out of the area, he explains. "Luck was with us because the nursing homes we evacuated were those most greatly affected.
"A number of nursing homes were without power and [needed] medical resupply," Craig adds. "That's why we called in the strategic national stockpile, and within the first 24 hours, we had [them resupplied]."
Most of the state's hospitals made it through the first 48 hours of the storm, he notes. "We didn't do a lot of direct movement of patients to a [remote] location. During ‘decompression,' or the discharge plan, a number of people were sent to other areas, but those in hospitals weathered the storm."
Two issues — lack of communication and difficulty accessing fuel — stand out as posing a particular problem during the hurricane response, Craig says.
During the terrorism preparedness efforts, the state had placed satellite telephones at all 100 Mississippi hospitals, he notes. "We were happy to have these radios and telephones because the cell phones didn't work."
There was some difficulty, however, in that people had to get on top of the hospitals and reposition the antennas, Craig says, and even more trouble because the tidal surge rendered inoperable the generators and satellite equipment stored around the emergency department, which is always on the first floor.
In the future, generators will need to be mounted on the roof, he says — just one of the lessons learned from "the largest storm surge we've ever had in Mississippi. The benchmark now is Hurricane Katrina."
A web-based system for monitoring bed availability and transferring patients to other facilities helped mitigate the effects of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, says Jim Craig, director of health protection for the Mississippi Department of Health.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content