HCA Healthcare is uniquely positioned to find safe care settings and evacuate patients when conditions get dire.
On October 7, 2024, just over a week had passed since Hurricane Helene made its way through the Southeast, and many teams were still engaged in relief efforts. Despite this, a team of evacuation leaders were now watching Hurricane Milton approach Florida’s Gulf Coast. Mandatory evacuation orders soon came from multiple counties – necessitating full evacuation of multiple HCA Healthcare hospitals.
The choice to evacuate a hospital is never made lightly, and requires collaboration across dozens of stakeholders. Together, they review the clinical needs of patients, advanced weather modeling and historical knowledge about facilities and their geography.
Once a decision is made to move patients, HCA Healthcare’s Patient Logistics Centers spring into action, using best practices honed over 35 hospital evacuations in the last decade. Destinations and transport plans are identified for every patient, and teams from across the organization work together to track progress and eventually reunite family members with their loved ones. Seamless communication between Patient Logistics, Nursing, Physician and Operations leaders ensures that the entire procedure comes together.
“It can be challenging to secure EMS services in some areas under normal circumstances, and these challenges are significantly increased during hurricanes and other natural disasters,” shared Sean DeLancey, regional AVP for HCA Healthcare Medical Transport. “The investment that
HCA Healthcare has made in medical transportation greatly reduced the strain on local EMS systems and increased our ability to keep our patients safe during Hurricanes Helene and Milton.”
Collaboration between our Patient Logistics Centers and our nursing partners is key to the successful outcomes for our patients every day.— Amy Norman, VP of Patient Logistics Centers and Medical Transport
However, sometimes unforeseeable circumstances arise, and even the most meticulous planning can be upended.
Hurricane Milton resulted in flash flooding that was beginning to reach the basement of HCA Florida Largo Hospital. Largo is a high-acuity hospital that serves as a regional referral center for complex cardiac care and organ transplant, which means many patients are connected to machines dependent on electricity. From the West Florida Division command center, Amber Boes, division chief nurse executive, and Elaine Polaski, division VP of nursing operations, rallied HCA Healthcare leaders across the Tampa Bay area to make space in their hospitals to receive patients and coordinated the movement of staff. They began to analyze how long certain machines and devices could still operate without power and how long it might take ambulances to reach the hospital to transport patients elsewhere.
“We found in the middle of the night that Largo Hospital was in trouble,” said Justin Andrews, medical transport manager with HCA Healthcare West Florida Division. “It kind of made my gut sink because it wasn’t an evacuation site, it was one of the places we were sending people.”
Largo Hospital was not one of the facilities that had been in a mandatory evacuation zone leading up to landfall, and has weathered many storms in the past. All critical care patients had already been moved to the ground floor ahead of the storm. However, as the hurricane progressed, water levels rose to nearly 7-feet in some areas, damaging electrical equipment and critical gear that impacted both normal and back-up generator power. This caused the hospital to lose power in about 75% of the building, and preempted a total blackout.
When generator power eventually failed, Largo Hospital was forced to evacuate all of its remaining patients. Agency ambulances were not willing to travel through the night at that point, but our colleagues were. The team at Largo turned to transport crews from HCA Florida Brandon Hospital, HCA Florida Orange Park, HCA Florida West Hospital and
HCA Florida Capital Hospital.
“The minute the wind speed got low enough, our ambulances from Brandon Hospital were on the way,” said Amber Boes. “We were so excited because we knew they were going to get there and we were going to save these people’s lives.”
The remarkable team of Brandon EMS paramedics were recognized by Tripp Owings, CEO of Brandon, after returning home.
As long as you were awake, you were helping out, trying to make sure that patients were cared for.— Charles Royster, ICU Nurse, HCA Florida Largo Hospital
When the weather calmed enough for agency transport teams to get to Largo and assist HCA Healthcare crews, ICU nurse Charles Royster said the caravan of EMS drivers stretched as far as he could see.
“As long as you were awake, you were helping out, trying to make sure that patients were cared for,” he says. “The teamwork was amazing. Everybody was doing what they could. It didn’t matter whose patient it was, they’re all our patients.”
In the next 24 hours, Largo evacuated nearly 240 patients using the combined resources of HCA Healthcare transport teams, local EMS, FEMA, and GMR Emergency Management. Everyone involved – doctors, nurses, paramedics, EMTs and logistics team members – did not rest until all patients were in a facility that could properly and safely care for them.
“One patient had been here for over 70 days and got his heart and kidney transplant the day before,” said Yasmin Franco, RN, an ICU nurse at
HCA Florida Largo Hospital. “He didn’t want to leave us. He looked at me and took my hand and said, ‘Would you come with me?’ Of course. We got in the HCA Healthcare truck and he held my hand the whole way there.”
HCA Florida Healthcare ambulance at HCA Florida Largo Hospital.
Hurricane Milton set a record for HCA Healthcare evacuations, with 634 patients from 10 different facilities relocated in just three and a half days. The perseverance shown by our colleagues during this time was remarkable, and the operation would not have been possible without the coordination of every individual involved and the resolve to put the safety of those we serve first.
“The crews did it without hesitation,” said Justin Andrews, Medical Transport Manager for our HCA Healthcare West Florida Division. “It’s what they are trained for. This is what these ambulances are equipped for. I couldn’t think of a better team to go to Largo Hospital.”
Our commitment to the care and improvement of human life never wavered.
“Collaboration between our Patient Logistics Centers and our nursing partners is key to the successful outcomes for our patients every day,” says Amy Norman, VP of Patient Logistics Centers and Medical Transport. “During emergency events, the partnership is absolutely vital. I’m so proud of the work we accomplish as a team.”
