The Villages Regional Hospital became a shelter for more than patients and staff during Hurricane Irma. The story unfolds along the timeline of the storm. With news of the upcoming hurricane, the hospital amped up its supply of food, water and fuel beyond the standard fourteen-day emergency supply. Before the storm, employees began arriving with their families.
“That is something I learned in the military,” said Michael Pittman, TVRH’s chief clinical officer and site administrator, “if you take care of the employee’s family, the employee can concentrate on their job.”
Using a hospital wing that was closed for refurbishment and storage areas, families set up camp.
“We had some cots, lots of kids sleeping in tents. It was really neat to see the families working together,” said Pittman. “When one mom was on shift another mom would watch the children. The kids turned it into a real camping adventure except with a bathroom and AC.”
Several employees have family members with disabilities and special needs.
“Sheltering these families, allowed the employee to know their loved ones were in a safe place and allowed that employee to be at work giving us all hands on deck,” said Pittman.
As the hurricane neared, family members of hospital patients started making the decision to stay in the hospital during the storm. They slept on chairs and cots. All of this was expected, it was what came next right after the storm that turned the hospital into an unexpected shelter.
There are many small assisted living facilities in the community accommodating eight to ten residents in a home. As these homes dealt with no power, 911 calls started and the residents were brought to the hospital. All were assessed and a few needed to be admitted, but most were discharged, but to go where?
“These people did not need to be patients, but they did need to be in a place where there was AC, light and medication assistance,” said Pittman.
The area shelters were full and not all of these folks could go to a regular shelter because of their medication needs. The solution was to have them stay at the hospital.
By late Tuesday and into Wednesday some of the larger assisted living facilities were out of fuel to run their generators and began bringing their residents to the hospital.
With the support of senior leadership, Don Henderson, hospital CEO and Saad Ehtisham, hospital senior VP and COO, Pittman set about turning large parts of the hospital into a shelter for these people.
“Job descriptions did not matter at this point,” said Pittman, “available staff handed out water and sandwiches.”
At the peak, the number sheltering in the hospital doubled the bed count.
“Everyone got fed and a bed. We had cots and stretchers lining hallways. Employees were hot bunking, sharing the cot with the next shift,” said Pittman. Plenty of staff stayed at the hospital making all run smoothly.
“We really became the safety net for the community,” said Pittman. “I have to give a shout out to Promises Hospital and Freedom Pointe. When they heard what was happening here, they called and said ‘we have beds, how can we help?’
Director of Nursing Susan Williams stayed at the hospital for five days.
“Everybody really pulled together and did whatever was asked of them. I’ve been at this for thirty-one years and have weathered a lot of storms in hospitals from Fairbanks to evacuating a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas and I have never seen a staff and facility come together as a community like this one did,” said Pittman.
By the weekend after the storm things were pretty well back to normal.
“This is probably something we will be looking at in preparation for the next big storm, an assisted living shelter, but we made it work and I am just so proud of our team,” said Pittman.
