Lost water supply, COVID-19 complicate response to Laura

DAMAGE TO Louisiana hospitals hit by Hurricane Laura varied widely, with some in the Lake Charles area sustaining “significant damage” when the Category 4 storm hit last week.

Damage to the water supply system was an issue for the region, more so than storm damage to hospitals directly.

While there has been roof, window and water damage to area providers, “none of it has been so severe that the hospital can’t operate,” said Paul Salles, CEO of the Louisiana Hospital Association. As of Aug. 28, some hospitals were running on generators because of power outages, Salles added.

Christus Health, an Irving, Texas-based health system that operates several hospitals and healthcare sites in the Lake Charles area, is in the recovery process.

“The scope of damage to our facilities varies from minor to major, but what is most important right now is that there are no reports of injuries to our patients, associates or any of physicians or clinical staff,” said Katy Kiser, a Christus spokeswoman.

Losing city water access is a critical issue for area hospitals, and that could affect their ability to operate, Salles said. An estimated 220,000 people lost their water, according to the Associated Press. “Without utilities, particularly water, it’s hard to sustain the kind of care folks are typically used to,” he said.

Lake Charles Memorial Health System on Friday said it had minimal damage but had limited services due to damage to the city’s water supply system. Its phone lines also were down.

Lake Charles did not flood like New Orleans did after Hurricane Katrina, so the area’s roads were mostly still passable.

The health system evacuated all patients from Lake Charles Memorial Hospital for Women the afternoon of Aug. 26 and relocated them to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The system also closed its emergency department and canceled outpatient services, procedures and surgeries that afternoon in preparation for the storm.

Medical staff sheltered in place to care for patients who couldn’t be discharged.

While its ED was open Aug. 28, the system was transferring all inpatients to hospitals outside the areas affected by the water supply damage.

Louisiana hospitals have a system in place for transferring patients during hurricanes, Salles said. Hospitals in non-impacted areas report their bed availability and are matched with hospitals in need. “We have a fair amount of available beds in other parts of the state,” he said. The hurricane response has been complicated by COVID-19. Special precautions were taken at public sheltering facilities, and hospitals and EMS providers also made preparations, Salles said.

When the storm was expected to batter southeast Texas, James McIntyre, a supply chain associate with Christus, drove overnight from Corpus Christi to make sure the system’s healthcare providers there had the personal protective equipment they needed, Kiser said.

Ahead of a hurricane’s projected landfall, Christus typically discharges or transfers patients to other facilities in the system to lower its census out of caution. However, COVID-19 made that more challenging, Kiser said.

“We had COVID-19 patients on ventilators who needed to continue to be treated at our facilities. We could not discharge them,” Kiser said. “We wanted to be there for them regardless of a storm, so we had to take appropriate measures to make sure our teams were equipped for whatever might come our way.” ●