By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Superstorm Sandy ripped through New Jersey. Its power caught lots of homeowners by surprise, who struggled with everything from loss of power to rising flood waters. And a new report indicates hospitals were no exception. About 90 percent experienced critical challenges during Sandy.
The Office of Inspector General’s Hospital Emergency Preparedness and Response During Sandy report surveyed nearly 175 hospitals in New Jersey, and parts of New York and Connecticut. Ninety-three percent sheltered in place while 7 percent of the hospitals evacuated or partially evacuated. Eighty-nine percent reported experiencing substantial challenges in responding to the storm — everything from electrical and communication failures to challenges with community collaboration over shared resources like fuel and hospital beds.
CarePoint Health Hoboken Medical Center was one of the 7 percent of hospitals surveyed that evacuated all 93 patients to other hospitals or facilities a day before Sandy struck.
“We are below sea level. We knew we’d be in trouble. We had to have an empty hospital because we were worried about flood waters,” said Dr. Mieka Roberson.
The ER remained open for anyone currently there — flood waters inundated the ground level.
“There was water everywhere,” Dr. Roberson said.
CarePoint Health Hoboken’s Dr. Mieka Roberson says before the storm, staffers here ran through a variety of emergency training exercises. Still she’s not surprised the majority of hospitals struggled.
“Emergency preparedness is something that’s a critical thing. No matter how many times you prepare or train, nothing goes as you planned,” she said.
The report found flood waters severely affected hospitals, even compromising one hospital’s backup generator. Road closures impacted staffers. Hospitals struggled to communicate with other hospitals and outside agencies like the Office of Emergency Management. The report indicates, “Prior to the storm, most hospitals received emergency-related deficiency citations from hospital surveyors, some of which related to the challenges reported by hospitals during Superstorm Sandy.”
Those hospitals weren’t listed in the report. Dr. Roberson says preparing before the storm was vital. Still even though CarePoint Health Hoboken’s doors were closed, there were some challenges.
“A big problem we had was communication with the nursing staff. That was not do we come in, do we not? Communication with outside facilities was a big problem,” Roberson said.
Which is why CarePoint Health Hoboken added to their emergency preparedness measures, including more evacuation drills.
And more portable ventilators and lights. The hospital now uses a system which allows them to send emergency messages to the entire staff secure the doors easily to keep out rising flood waters.
That’s why CarePoint Health Hoboken is in the process of installing door jams on all their front entrances — to hold plywood in place.
When asked if she feels ready for the next Sandy, Roberson said, “Can never be 100 percent ready, but we’re prepared, yes.”