TMC PULSE

T M C » P U L S E | A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 17 15 days. That flooding destroyed years of research, while some insti- tutions lost animals and sustained widespread structural damage. Harvey's 51 inches of rain over five days set a record for the largest amount of rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the continental United States. But the deluge validated more than a decade of meticulous post-Allison planning and improvements in the TMC, which had minimal flooding and fared better than many other Houston institutions. "The reason is the enormous amount of investment in infrastruc- ture and fortification that has taken place post-Allison," said Shawn Cloonan, the TMC's chief operating officer and executive vice president. "There's been a really strong empha- sis from Texas Medical Center corporate, in partnership with our member institutions and in partner- ship with the regional and state and federal authorities, to really fortify this infrastructure so that we could maintain operations." After Allison, underground emergency generators and switch- ing gear were elevated at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. During Harvey, submarine doors— essentially steel barriers sealed with rubber bladders—preserved the hospital's buildings. "The difference was that we had no intrusion of water on this cam- pus. We had no loss of power. We were fully operational," said Tom Flanagan, vice president of trauma services and disaster preparedness for the Memorial Hermann Health System. "We were able to shelter our staff and patients in house while we continued to receive patients … a 180-degree difference from what hap- pened in Tropical Storm Allison." Harvey also revealed the impor- tance of good data for decision- making, good tools for communicat- ing those decisions and good orga- nization for emergency response, said James Mitchell, the assistant director of emergency management at Texas Children's Hospital. "We have a very mature imple- mentation of the incident command system," he said, adding that com- munication with employees proved particularly vital during Harvey. "We've got over 16,000 staff- ing positions in our system, and through Harvey, during that five days, we sent out about 320,000 contacts—whether it was communi- cating with everybody or whether it was sending tailored messages to very specific audiences with infor- mation they needed to take action," Mitchell said. "One of the things that helps us to be effective is that we have a very strong and resilient employee culture. Everybody is essential to our response." Houston Methodist Hospital also remained operational in the TMC and across its system, spokes- woman Gale Smith said. "Harvey was a very unique weather event," Smith said. "Allison was how we got our lessons learned. We moved our generators. We installed the flood doors so that for every weather event we've had since then, we haven't had a major setback." In its role as the emergency preparedness leader for member institutions, the TMC is working to improve supply chain collaboration, as well as campus-wide mobility and access during a storm. "We have shown the wherewithal of the infrastructure to maintain operations. Now, the second level is to make sure that people have meaningful access to that care," Cloonan said. "TMC has led multi-institutional emergency planning and flood mitigation strategy meetings that have resulted in updated policies. Those revisions include new ways to handle the critical supply chain for medical waste, food and other institution necessities. We also have launched an inter-institutional emergency preparedness portal so that there can be a real-time exchange of information and needs." The checklist also includes seeking federal road infrastructure funding to fortify critical corridors to the TMC so that there is access for health care professionals and patients during storms, in addition to collaborating with local, state and regional authorities on transporta- tion staging areas. "You're not going to have those incredible scenes where you have a physician wading through waist- deep water to go in to do surgery. That's unacceptable," Cloonan said. Like UTHealth, the TMC cor- poration also will be investing in high-water vehicles, he added. TARGET AUDIENCE: Surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, surgical residents, allied health professionals, and nursing students will benefit from this course. Houston Methodist Research Institute 6670 Bertner Ave. John F. Bookout Auditorium, 2nd Floor Houston, TX 77030 PROGRAM DIRECTORS: Brian J. Dunkin, MD, FACS Girish P. Joshi, MB, BS, MD, FFARCSI This live activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. MANAGING SURGICAL PAIN IN THE ERA OF AN OPIOID CRISIS: The Value of Multimodal Pain Therapy WEDNESDAY, OCT. 3, 2018 Seminar: 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Optional Hands-on Workshop: 1-4 p.m.* *Limited to 20 participants. REGISTER TODAY events.houstonmethodist.org/opioidcrisis

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