Responding to Healthcare Facilities after a Hurricane
A CASE STUDY
In late Fall of 2017, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma made landfall within less than three weeks of each other. Texas endured Hurricane Harvey for four days while Florida took the brunt of Hurricane Irma. Both registered as Category 4 hurricanes and, with a combined $200 billion in damages, became two of the costliest hurricanes to ever hit the U.S.
These hurricanes severely affected many hospitals, nearly fifty of which called on GHP’s emergency response team to help. Over the course of the next six months, GHP worked tirelessly with each facility to ensure the facility remained operational, the occupants were safe, and the remediation and reconstruction was complete. By March of 2018, all forty-nine hospitals were back up and running to pre-loss condition standards.
"When it comes to building emergencies, every minute counts. Every delay in response is a delay in a building reopening--keeping patients from care, people from their homes, businesses from their customers. When we get that 2 AM call from a client, we hit the ground—and we know GHP will be right there beside us. They are a partner we trust to deliver reliable solutions when the clock is ticking. In an emergency, they are one of the first calls we make."
—Russ Lannom, National Marketing at Belfor Property Restoration
Project Highlights
Services: Emergency Response
Timeline:
Each hospital had its own varying degrees of damage and therefore each had its own timeline. In some cases, GHP restored full functionality within a few weeks while others took several months. These timelines largely depended on a facility’s ability, or lack thereof, to shut down entire areas of damage without further exasperating staff, supplies, and those seeking care.
Hurricane Harvey – August 17th, 2017 - September 3rd, 2017
Hurricane Irma – August 30th, 2017 - September 14th, 2017
Ended in March of 2018
Data:
Project Scope:
GHP managed around fifty hospitals’ remediation phases to completion then performed visual clearances and sewage screenings for each. After receiving an all clear, we oversaw each hospitals’ reconstruction phase to completion. Lastly, we performed final air sampling of containment areas to ensure adequate air quality standards moving forward.
Assessed 21 hospitals in Texas, 26 in Florida, 1 in Georgia, and 1 in South Carolina
Provided Moisture Maps and Field Report to affected hospitals within 24 hours
Coordinated with facility owners and infection control nurses to schedule remediation
Project Outcomes:
Returned all forty-nine hospitals back to pre-loss conditions or better within six months
Challenges and Objectives
Each hospital’s main objective was getting back to full functionality as quickly as possible while still providing care to patients that fit their standards and capabilities. This presented GHP with a set of unique challenges including:
Responding to nearly fifty hospitals spread across multiple states
Managing schedules of responders to prevent burnout
Working with hospital personnel to ensure individual standards and specifications were upheld
Working and communicating with a multitude of external vendors
Solution
While this emergency response was on a much larger scale than most, GHP rose to the occasion thanks to our team of dedicated individuals. In order to prevent burnout among our responders, GHP implemented several tactics to increase efficiency such as:
Positioning two team members to document the conditions at each facility
Working with our Nashville team to provide digital plans with onsite conditions after hours
Collaborating with off-site team members to deliver accurate moisture maps to clients within 24 hours
“What’s unique about GHP’s response to emergencies is the level of professionalism that we bring. It can be quite chaotic, so our ability to come in with experience and expertise can help take some of the burden off the client’s shoulders.”
—Rich Crim, PE, LEED AP BD+C, GHP’s Vice President, Director of Operations
GHP understands the particular importance of communication in an emergency response situation. We make sure every person involved in the assessment, remediation, and reconstruction phases is on the same page throughout the entire process. When an emergency strikes, GHP takes the following steps:
Approach the emergency response from our client’s perspective
Review individual hospitals’ operating systems
Review current census information
Determine what can be taken offline and for how long
Implement an agreed upon remediation schedule
Provide approvals from each facilities’ infection control nurse
Oversee external vendors that assist with remediation and reconstruction
Provide remediation specifications to remediation contractors
Ensure all specifications and standards are being met along the way
Performed a visual clearance and sewage screen before greenlighting reconstruction
Collect final air samples in containment areas to confirm safe conditions
Results
Even with nearly fifty different points of contact, specifications, and phase timelines, GHP ensured every hospital was fully back online and operating as soon as possible from the moment of impact. Thanks to the quick and consistent efforts of GHP’s emergency response team, only one hospital had to be demolished. Damages caused compounded with consistent flooding over the years made it irremediable, so it was decided to rebuild in a more suitable location.
Along with this success, GHP reimagined our moisture mapping process to better suit our clients’ needs. Working with multiple hospitals at once meant drawing and delivering almost fifty moisture maps simultaneously. The GHP emergency response team leaned on technology and members of the Nashville office to accomplish this. Team members in the field used Bluebeam to electronically mark up each hospital’s moisture map to send to our off-site members. From there, the off-site members refined the drawings overnight and sent them back to our field members the following morning. This enabled the field members to deliver each hospital’s moisture map and field report within 24 hours. GHP has since adopted this method as standard procedure to ensure the most effective and efficient response for our clients.