Jyric Sims

President, West Florida Division

What did preparation plans look and feel like as you all followed early reports of Milton’s arrival?

HCA Healthcare has a robust storm response plan in place – we’ve been around for 50 plus years. I also think, conducting healthcare in Florida, hurricanes are part of doing business here. Four to five days out, we were getting the reports of a tropical formation. Once it became more of a credible threat, HCA Healthcare’s emergency operations structure in Nashville plugged into our emergency operations structure here.

With HCA Healthcare, the emergency response structure is embedded in what we do, it’s who we are. We have hurricane simulations and disaster preparedness simulations before hurricane season even starts.

What felt unique about this particular event?

Every storm has a different personality and a different makeup and trajectory. But the muscle memory around preparation is pretty well ingrained. Pre-positioning assets, collaboration and communication are paramount.

I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana so being part of hurricanes is certainly nothing new. But it’s different when you’re responsible for 17 hospitals and 23,000 colleagues and a host of other assets spread up and down the coast. I’m fortunate to have a lot of leaders in the division and facilities who have endured storms as well. Just three years ago Hurricane Ian affected our market, so there’s that muscle memory again.

How did you prioritize what was needed immediately?

For our division, Hurricane Helene was more of a storm surge event. We started to see storm surges of between eight and twelve feet in some areas, so our response there was specific to Tiger Dams around flood-vulnerable hospitals and transferring patients from flood zones. We had generators prepositioned and response crews ready for Helene.

But the unprecedented nature of the way Milton came through Mexico and angled straight for Florida, I don’t think has ever happened before. It grew to a Category 5 within about 48 hours. We got our A and B teams ready and we were able to evacuate four hospitals and de-risk several others, transferring the most critical patients more inland to sister hospitals and our community hospitals as appropriate.

Things started escalating quickly during Milton, how did that impact your priorities?

Our Largo Hospital is a critical hospital because of our transplant programs. We had two hundred plus patients there at the time of the Milton event. We got so much rain that it flooded the basement of the hospital that housed our boilers, chillers, kitchen, sterile processing for the ORs, all of our plant operations and IT. We had heroic plant operations leaders, our chief operating officer and VP of operations, down in the basement trying to get the water out and secure the door. We had critical care patients without electricity on mechanical devices that would fail if we didn’t get them recharged. It was serious, and we did not have a single adverse clinical patient outcome during that time.

It definitely sounds like HCA Healthcare colleagues rose to the occasion.

We lost power at Largo, had no electricity, it’s three in the morning with winds at more than 50 miles an hour, and we could not get any EMS or transfer agency to come get our patients. Agency entities are constrained by some logistics and some protocols. So we called on our HCA Healthcare colleagues. We had five transfer rigs at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital to the east who we called, and their response was, “We’re built for this.” They got in their EMS rigs in the cover of darkness and drove through the pitch black for two and half hours. They were the first ones on the scene. In that moment, it was HCA Healthcare taking care of HCA Healthcare and that’s what I’ll always remember. They were the heroes. Our teams were the heroes.

It is certainly a testament to the way everyone was ready to respond. How were you all prepared emotionally and mentally?

The first thing is your mindset. We wanted to have clear and consistent communication and to engage a sense of confidence in the plan that we had. We were as prepared as we could be. We had to reorganize ourselves with leaders and individuals who had just survived Helene. So it was also important to allow time for individuals to go home or make sure their families were okay, make sure their homes were secure and to shore up any family dynamics so that, when we ride out the storm, we are mentally prepared to get through it.

In the midst of so many challenges, what were some of the most encouraging moments you witnessed throughout the storms?

The compassion of our people and their selfless leadership made sure we were thinking about our caregivers, our teams, our patients, and ultimately ensured that we remained open. We are a critical part of the infrastructure in many of these communities.

Our nursing and patient logistics center, along with our other divisions, without question opened up their doors to accept our transfer patients. It was absolutely remarkable.

What have restoration efforts looked like since the storms?

The recovery, by any stretch of the imagination, has been absolutely phenomenal. I think about the 13 mini marts we had that served over 7,500 colleagues throughout the division. That’s 10,000 cases of baby food, 5,700 cases of pet food and over 10,000 cases of cleaning supplies. Fuel trucks delivered 63,000 gallons of fuel. We had over 350 colleagues supported by our EAP program. Hotel rooms, laundry trucks – that overwhelming response was unmatched in the market by any other organization, bar none. That is showing up for our people.

What would you like to make sure colleagues hear from you?

We owe a big debt of gratitude to all of our colleagues and to
HCA Healthcare. Everywhere, from the top of this organization through every rung, there was intentionality around how we responded, making sure our patients, colleagues and communities were safe. When you look to us, we will be there to support you.

Greg Lowe

President, North Carolina Division

At what point was it clear that Hurricane Helene’s impact on Asheville and its surrounding areas would be unprecedented?

Two days prior to the storm’s landfall, a stalled front dumped more than six inches of rain in some Western North Carolina (WNC) locations. This saturated the ground, making it weak and increasing the potential for landslides, flash flooding and downed trees and powerlines when the hurricane winds and rain began. After the worst had passed on Friday morning, and we were able to assess the situation, we realized the devastation and destruction that flooding had caused were unimaginable.

Little did we know, for many it would be days before roads were passable and cell service would return to get in touch with families.

What are HCA Healthcare’s usual hurricane preparedness protocols? Did you alter or add to those plans in any way based on those early reports of Helene’s arrival?

Much of the scope of our existing Winter Storm Plan was applicable to the quickly escalating conditions, so we activated that plan prior to the height of the storm to ensure we could provide safe patient care throughout the event. With increased potential of flooding in our area, and the safety of our staff a primary importance, we paid our care teams to sleep on-site at our hospitals and prepare for one to two days of difficult weather.

What were your priorities and what were the immediate challenges?

Our patients are our first priority. Throughout the height of the storm, they were safe. Our nurses, our colleagues, all of our team members did the most amazing job putting them first as our priority. In addition to the more than 700 patients, we knew we had more than 1,200 colleagues sleeping in the hospital, so their safety and that of our colleagues who were outside our facilities was also of utmost importance.

We quickly learned that both internal and external communication were a challenge with the loss of power. Phone lines were down, internet inaccessible, iMobile and overhead pages inoperable – very few of our usual methods of communication worked.

What measures were you able to quickly implement?

To say the first 24-48 hours were difficult is an understatement. We extended our shelter-in-hospital policy for colleagues until they were able to safely travel due to an increasing concern for their wellbeing outside the facility. Additionally, the lack of municipal water was our biggest concern, so we quickly implemented creative ways to ensure clean water and electricity were available in our hospitals. Within 72 hours, the engineers at HCA Healthcare devised a system to drill two wells in order to run our chillers, and used tanker trucks to pressurize more than 200,000 gallons of potable water into the hospital every day so we could continue to safely care for our patients.

How did being a part of HCA Healthcare impact your initial efforts?

As we discovered just how destructive the flooding was, we were concerned about how quickly some critical patient resources would be restored. With no time for us to wait for area vendors to assess,
HCA Healthcare quickly delivered. Our access to these resources was crucial and, by Sunday, we saw an increasing level of support arriving at Mission facilities each day.

Colleagues from across the enterprise volunteered to travel to WNC to help relieve our caregivers who had been on-site for days. HCA Healthcare teams increased security measures to ensure our safety, delivered fuel trucks to refill vehicles, set up Colleague Support Center “markets” for staff to replenish necessities, enabled satellite communications and set up mobile units like showers, laundry and kitchens. These resources made available by HCA Healthcare ensured that our colleagues were cared for and available to care for our patients.

What do continued efforts look like now, as of late October?

Access to resources, specifically the need for city water, is still ongoing. HCA Healthcare’s ability to refill supply needs for patients and employees will be critical for the foreseeable future. Many colleagues may need to be redeployed for an extended period of time as their own department duties changed with storm operations and HCA Healthcare is able to provide those opportunities. Mental health resources will also continue as our colleagues face uncertain futures.

Finally, while the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund was essential in assisting employees with immediate funds for initial damage, we expect this invaluable program will play a crucial role for any further costs incurred.

How does this compare to other natural disasters or catastrophes you’ve managed?

I’ve been in healthcare for more than 20 years including as CEO of
HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital on the Treasure Coast, so I’ve had to respond to plenty of hurricanes. Hurricane Helene was, by far, the worst and longest-lasting severe weather event that any of my teams have managed.

What are some of the takeaways from this experience?

Our colleagues are stronger and more resilient than we ever imagined. The creativity and resourcefulness that I’ve seen from every single person in our facilities is inspiring. There was no one who didn’t roll up their sleeves and do whatever was required in our greatest time of need. We are not a Division where vast emergency preparedness resources are typically implemented. But the support that our HCA Healthcare network was able to deliver undoubtedly saved lives.

What else would you like colleagues to know?

“Thank you” will never be enough for the miraculous ways that our colleagues cared for our patients and each other in the wake of Hurricane Helene. As we recover – and we will – no one is alone in the effort.