Area hospitals have few hiccups during storm

By Vershal Hogan (Contact), | The Natchez DemocratBrian Reynolds (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Natchez — In the wake of Hurricane Gustav, Miss-Lou healthcare providers were able to continue to provide their services without many hiccups.

“Hospitals have incredibly redundant systems to ensure the safety of the patients,” Natchez Regional Hospital CEO Scott Phillips said.

“We have a standby generator that can operate for up to seven days without access to the power grid,” he said.

“As long as we have access to enough diesel fuel we can run indefinitely.”

Phillips expected the hospital to be back on the power grid by Tuesday afternoon.

The hospital is fully staffed and has not had trouble dealing with the extra load of patients, chief nursing officer Lana Morgan said.

They have seen approximately 20 more emergency room patients than normal, mostly due to asthma, congestive heart failure and gastrointestinal issues, she said.

NRMC also has emergency power stations for people to perform home-based treatments.

However, they are having trouble with their CT scanner and some lab equipment, but can still do X-rays, she said.

“We’ve been able to handle (everything),” she said. “We’ve got extra staff in the emergency room and after we see the patient, if we need to transfer them somewhere else we can.”

Natchez Community Hospital retained, most of its power during the storm, Natchez Community Hospital CEO Tim Trottier said. They also had a second backup generator brought in from North Carolina, which will allow the hospital to operate at full power, he said.

“Currently our emergency department is staffed with double physician coverage and we have full specialty coverage,” he said.

Riverland Medical Center Administrator Vernon Stevens said his hospital also operates on a generator when the power is out.

“We have patients in the hospital, the lab is still running and the emergency room is open,” Stevens said.

While he said he doubted the generator could power the hospital’s CT scanner, other medical devices such as X-ray machines could continue to operate. The business office was closed to conserve generator power.

The hospital will also have to be without air-conditioning as long as it is on the generator, Stevens said.

At Camelot Leisure Living, the nursing home was also able to keep power and lights with a generator.

“We made sure all of this was done and we had all of our emergency preparations ready to go,” Camelot Administrator Tommy Massey said.

While Camelot in Ferriday did not take in any evacuees, they have a facility in Tensas Parish that took in 10, Massey said.

Riverland took in some evacuees, Stevens said, but did not receive an onslaught of patients from the south.

“Most of them went up north,” Stevens said.

Glenburney Nursing Home had emergency power, which kept all critical systems up and running, administrator Amanda Floyd said.

“We had everybody hooked up to emergency plugs, we had emergency lights,” she said. “It’s just hot.”

The nursing home was hooking up a larger generator Tuesday afternoon, which would allow them to run at full power, but she did not know when their electricity would be turned back on.

“I’ve been told just to be patient,” she said. “Hospitals and nursing homes are first priority.”