Anyone ever worked in a hospital that had to evacuate

Published

So I am setting here watching a news and they are talking about a hospital that had to evacuate . so my question is where do they take every one ? wheres no way a noter hospital could take everyone and for that matter there would not be anuff ems to take them ? It must take hours ?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

It's all planned in advance depending on the disaster. I participated in evacuation drills years ago when I worked in a coastal community hospital. Since there was warning of the impending hurricane, specific arrangements for critical patients transfer would have started on Wednesday or Thursday with the expected impact of the storm to start Saturday night. They would generally use transport ambulance services and specialty transport services (such as pedi, critical transfer) and not local paid or volunteer EMS agencies. EMS agencies would only be utilize if the evacuation had to be expedited.

I've worked EMS when a 120 bed capacity nursing home was evacuated due to power loss and subsequent loss of a back-up generator. It's amazing the resources that are available in a significant time of need. Since this was an urgent situation (patients requiring life sustaining medical equipment) EMS was involved as well as local ambulance transport companies.

there was a recent article in Advance for Nurses that discussed a coordinated transfer of an entire NJ hospital as it moved into a new building. Not surprising the transfer was coordinated by experienced nursing staff who were able to appropriately prioritize patient care & determine who needed a critical care or specialty nurse along for the ride (such as ICU pts or oncology patients). They finished significantly ahead of projected schedule.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

I don't work in a hospital, I work in a LTC facility. but we did evacuate yesterday.

Everything went well and it took about 5 hours to get everyone out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Aged care, disability, community.

I was involved in the evacuation of a nursing home for cyclone yasi in Australia earlier this year. We utilised the army for the majority of our residents as well as the facility bus. It took 10 hours to get all 110 residents from the nursing home to the evacuation centre. We had about 3 residents taken via civilian ambulance to the hospital as they were just too unstable to be cared for in a high-school gym. I'm not sure how many facilities were evacuated up and down the east coast at that stage because of Yasi, but I know that there were at least two major hospitals that were completely evacuated to about 1000kms south. Everyone possible got involved though with all of this, and I mean the army, the airforce, the state emergency services, police, fire brigades, ambulance services, army reserves, bushfire brigades etc.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Wow Pgondk!

Thanks for sharing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB.

My hospital was evacuated and they basically send everyone home that could possibly do so. I work in OB and people who had c-sections 24 hours prior were opting to head home. People who couldn't be discharged for whatever reason were then farmed out to several other area hospitals and the emergency management team coordinated all of the transports by ambulance/ambulette. It worked pretty smoothly actually.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.

I don't work in a hospital, but during Katrina and Gustav our hospice pts who were in LTC facilities were evacuated to safer areas. Our nurses (hospice) had to make visits to our pts at the facilities that received them. Of course, we didn't go during the storm, but as soon as the winds and rain stopped. It would take hours to reach a facility 30 or so miles away d/t fall trees, debris, road closures, etc.

Keeping all those nurses affected by Irene in my prayers.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU & LTAC as RN. FNP.

Yes, during prep for hurricane Rita in Louisiana. Thankfully management actually did something smart, and sent our critical pts out the day before so we mainly had somewhat stable pts to worry about. Ambulances transported them to a sister hospital and I drove several with the don and

a few other nurses. We followed an ambulance. Now, this ambulance paramedic we followed was from Boston and about the coolest guy you could meet. We had many out of state medical people here helping after hurricane rita tore us up, so they were still in the area to help. Anyway he parted the "red sea of traffic" as everybody evacuated.

It sucked though, having to leave my family to evacuate, but it worked out. We were set up with our patients in a closed wing of the hospital, and everyone puled together to take care of them. We were housed at a miltary base nearby.

Part of me resented having to leave the family, but the patients still needed care, so there wasn't much choice in the matter. It took several hours to evacuate, and most people who were not at work didn't come in, except for a couple of single nurses. Eventually though, some nurses made it to replace us at the other hospital. I don't want to ever go thru that again.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU & LTAC as RN. FNP.

I meant I drove nurses, not patients.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.
I meant I drove nurses, not patients.

LOL! I didn't even catch that when I was reading it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion