Baptist's Overview of Response to Hurricane Katrina Disaster

Contact: Robby Channell, 601-968-5135 rchannell@mbhs.org

Jackson, Miss. - September 20, 2005

Baptist Treats Approximately 200 Evacuees from Hurricane Katrina
During a time of crisis, the Baptist family joined together to aid those in need. When Hurricane Katrina hit, the disaster preparedness plan was launched. A communication command center was convened in Baptist’s Nursing Administration conference room as a central area for all communication during this time of disaster.

“We periodically review our disaster plans and conduct disaster drills with Baptist staff and have a team ready to respond no matter what issue arises,” said hospital spokesman Robby Channell. “We stand ready no matter what challenges we may face.”

While Facility Management pulled resources to keep the hospital running, the Emergency Department worked tirelessly to treat a high volume of patients. Case managers and social workers assisted displaced patients with many needs from getting them clothes to finding them a place to stay. Food and Nutrition Services faced many challenges, too, but was able to feed many during the first night of the disaster. Security officers wore many hats to help hospital staff, visitors and patients. Baptist Home Medical Services reached out to evacuees at church shelters. Clinical coordinators streamlined patient placement. Jackson Oncology Associates joined Baptist Cancer Services to aid those needing chemo who couldn’t get treatment. Countless others made the hospital functional.

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Baptist Lends its MCCU to AMR for Evacuation Efforts at Biloxi Hospital
On Wednesday following Hurricane Katrina, (August 31), Baptist responded to a request from American Medical Response (AMR) to assist them in transporting to Jackson several patients that FEMA ordered to be evacuated from Biloxi Regional Medical Center.

AMR asked Baptist to provide its Mobile Cardiac Care Unit (MCCU)—which has the equipment and staff to stabilize and maintain critical cardiac patients during transport—to assist in the evacuation. Baptist Respiratory therapist Kitty Pitts, RRT, and nurse Sue Lawrence, RN, both assigned to the MCCU, joined a convoy of three other AMR vehicles for the trip.

The convoy, led by AMR’s Kevin Tucker, RN, left Jackson around 3:45 p.m. and returned to Jackson with nine patients the next morning around 2 a.m. Baptist’s MCCU staff transported three of the nine. Initially informed that the convoy would need to pick up six patients, they discovered upon arrival that Biloxi Regional urgently needed to evacuate nine patients. “We didn’t have room for all nine, and we told the disaster coordinator at Biloxi Regional that we would come back to get more patients,” Pitts said. “They told us ‘They won’t live that long.’” FEMA provided an additional ambulance so all nine patients could be evacuated.

The patients were profoundly affected by the adverse conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina, especially the extreme heat. Both Lawrence and Pitts commented that after just an hour of riding in the air-conditioned MCCU, all of the patients were noticeably improved.

“When we were loading up our last patient getting ready to leave,” Lawrence said, “the nurse in charge said, ‘Now I can go home and take care of my family.’”

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Baptist Cancer Services Provides Continuing Treatment for Cancer Patients Displaced by Hurricane Katrina
Baptist Cancer Services, along with physicians of Jackson Oncology Associates, GI Associates, Radiation Oncology of Mississippi, and gynecologic oncologist Dr. Jimmy Moore have undertaken the care of patients currently undergoing treatment for cancer who evacuated to Jackson due to Hurricane Katrina.

Since the storm, Baptist Cancer Services has treated on an outpatient basis 46 cancer patients for various needs including treatment of dehydration, chemotherapy, lab work and injections for supportive medication to maintain blood counts. They have also treated eight patients who needed evaluation/consultation for radiation therapy. Additionally, they have helped three patients with Crohn’s Disease who needed IV treatment.

Of the 46 patients who are being treated for outpatient procedures, approximately 30 are still under treatment at Baptist. On September 8, Cancer Services converted an activity room into an additional patient infusion room for chemotherapy and IV procedures.

“These cancer patients already had so much to worry about—loss of their homes, their jobs—that we didn’t want them to have to worry about their cancer treatment getting off course,” said Bobbie Ware, Director of Baptist Cancer Services.

“The patients came, of course, without records,” said Ware. “Some of them had limited knowledge of their treatment regimen, but some of them didn’t even know where their cancer was located. Our staff followed up with their insurance companies to piece together clinical information that physicians needed to continue treatment appropriately. The insurance companies, with the exception of those in Louisiana who were also in crisis, were all very helpful.”

Physicians and Cancer Services staff saw their first evacuee patients on Tuesday after the hurricane. Baptist opened up the Radiation Oncology waiting area in the Hederman Cancer Center as a patient/triage area for cancer patients because many of them were too weak to go any further. Cancer patients who came to Baptist’s ER were sent to the triage area in the Hederman waiting room so that these patients--already immunosuppressed—wouldn’t be subject to a long wait in the ER that was extremely busy after the storm. They brought in recliners and IV poles to do infusion/treatment right in the waiting room. Cancer Services staff worked extended hours and pulled in additional staff nurses to assist with procedures.

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Baptist Employees Volunteer to Provide “Katrina Child Day Care”
In the hours immediately following Hurricane Katrina, Baptist converted the Private Dining Rooms of the hospital cafeteria into a day care for the children of employees involved in patient care. This allowed Baptist staff to care for patients without having to also care for their families while contending with power outages, gasoline shortages, closed schools, and closed day care centers.

More than 50 Baptist employees volunteered to man the day care program over the seven days it was in place. The day care operated round-the-clock for the first two days following the hurricane. Thereafter, the hospital’s Christian Love Day Care re-opened and cared for the additional children with continued assistance from Baptist employee volunteers.

Brenda Castleberry, RN, Director of Baptist’s Education Resource Center, was in charge of the effort. “The nursing staff was free to care for our patients with ease knowing that their children were being cared for and loved,” she said.

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