Los of power and water caused signi...

Los of power and water caused significant question s for many hospitals along the east coast when Hurricane Isabel hit. The category 2 hurricane hit the shores of North Carolina at noon forward Thursday, Sept 18, 2003. From there, Isabel swept the eastern seaboard with winds gusting up to 130 miles by means of hour, finally ending Friday, tribe 19. Here are a hardly any stories and key advice from AORN members who were affected by the agency of Hurricane Isabel.

Unexpectedly public of water

Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls body of christians Va, is running a cloyed schedule again after four days of handling sole emergency surgeries. When Hurricane Isabel hit, the hospital immediately dissipated power and water. For crisis surgeries, bottled water had to be poured throughout the surgeons' hands for the initial scour The hospital does not commonly use alcohol-based scrubs, so they had to gain some from other hospitals in order to do intermediate cleaning. The los of water accommodate with was unexpected. They had meditation about it as a possibility, on the contrary thought they would have more warning. As a accrue they are starting to evaluate ordering alcohol-based hand cleansers.

As the same of the hospitals that received patients after the attacks at the Pentagon in succession Sept 11, 2001, Inova Fairfax had already experienced dealing with a disaster. The best thing the hospital did, according to Paula R Graling, RN MSN CN CNOR, clinical nurture specialist at Inova Fairfax Hospital, was to put up a command center to handle all communications. They also made arrangements with other area hospitals that had power and water to sterilize instruments if it had become necessary.

Communities twitch together

Despite being without power, water, and telephone services for days, Kathy G Fairfax, RN CNOR, director of surgical services for Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, NC has set up something to smile about. In the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, Fairfax recalls les of the damage and destruction than she does the perception of community and camaraderie. "It's heartwarming," she said. "This community has really struggleed together, and it's neat to be a part of it."

When Fairfax and her colleagues learned that their hospital would be in Isabel's path, they ordered enough supplies to last a week. by dint of the time the hurricane arrived, staff members felt prepared to handle whatever it would bring. Fairfax's advice:

* Order affluence of supplies in advance.

* unravel a centralized system to handle phone calls and maintenance requests

* Establish protocols for accepting homebound patients to make sure that the most critical cases can be treated, and for what reason and when to move the them to a shelter or back to their homes

Take warnings seriously

Jane H Flowers, RN MSN CNOR, manager of perioperative education at Peninsula Regional Medical Center Salisbury, Md said they were fortunate Their facility wasn't directly in the path of Hurricane Isabel. upon Monday of that week, they started tracking the storm and ordering back-up supplies. "There were more supplies in that hospital than I've eternally seen," Flowers said.

in succession Thursday morning, 10 surgical cases were performed, on the other hand by 10 AM, the power was sputtering and other cases were canceled. Managers asked for offers to stay. They emphasized that the hospital is a trauma center and stand in want ofed to continue providing services. Central command asked one OR nurse to work in succession another unit that was short-staffed (they not at all do that at this hospital). The promote did work in the other unit. Flowers said, "OR staff always be due [i]or[/i] owing through on things like that."

Flowers' advice:

* When you have the delicacy of a warning such as a storm watch, pay attention to it. Gear up

* Start taking inventory from the beginning Keep in mind that for all disasters you won't have that gratification of two or three days' notice that you're going to be hit

* Preparedness really is critical.

Advice

Flowers commends several things to prepare for this kind of urgency including staffing contingencies and communication plans. Also, she says to remember to simply say Thank you!

COPYRIGHT 2003 Association of Operating extent Nurses, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group