Lee Health aims to stop patient evacuations; state has sent 50 nurses to help NCH

Lee Health officials said Monday they are still evacuating patients from HealthPark Medical Center and Gulf Coast Medical Center with hopes it can be halted soon.

Roughly 400 patients have been transferred to other hospitals and all 149 children at Golisano Children’s Hospital were evacuated.

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Of that total, 67 are premature babies, according to Dr. Larry Antonucci, president and chief executive officer.

Since that first evacuation, another half a dozen premature babies were delivered, he said.

The hospital evacuations became necessary because of water pressure problems at the two campuses which have since been resolved.

“HealthPark and Gulf Coast are back on county utilities and we are monitoring the stability of the pressure before we stop the evacuations,” he said.

Water pressure dropped significantly at both campuses after Ian and a complete loss of water supply meant activating the emergency water protocols, he said. Employees were required to use “poop bags.”

“For a very short period of time that had to be done,” he said. “I think it was less than a day.”

Water tanks were brought in and used as a temporary measure until fixes were made to the county utility system to get the water pressure back up. Lee Health hospitals never lost electricity because of back-up generators.

All Lee Health hospitals are back on the normal electricity grid and off generator use. None had significant damage from Ian.

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The patient census Monday at Lee Health was around 1,000 across the system with a total of 1,865 beds. Admissions are likely to start climbing soon, he said. Before Ian hit last Wednesday, there were 1,400 hospitalized patients.

“Both Lee Memorial and Cape Coral hospitals are near capacity,” he said.

What's happening at Collier County hospitals?

At the NCH Healthcare System in Collier County, there were 510 patients hospitalized Monday, which is above normal for this time of year, according to Jonathan Kling, chief operating officer for the 715-bed system.

Of that, 100 of the patients are transfers from Lee Health, he said. The transfers include eight children and six are premature infants.

Fifty registered nurses have been sent to NCH to help with staffing.

“They are here for 14 days,” he said.

Normally this time of year the patient volume is not this high, it’s about 150 hospitalizations above normal, and seasonal nurses are not back yet for the winter months.

The emergency rooms at NCH are at capacity and are holding patients because of inpatient census challenges, Kling said. Some patients who can be discharged are challenging their discharge to shelters.

“This started happening over the weekend,” he said.

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In other cases there are patients who can’t be discharged because they don’t have water or electricity at home so NCH is keeping them longer than they should be hospitalized, Kling said.

The emergency rooms at NCH are busy and seeing a lot of fractures and other injuries from people cleaning up Ian-related damage to their properties, Kling said.

Some of the patients have run out of their medications at home; there has not been any cases of carbon monoxide poisoning from running generators at home, Kling said. Lee Health reports it has seen a handful of cases.

Physicians Regional Healthcare System's total census is  270 patients. Physicians Regional North off Creekside Boulevard is without air conditioning and is not currently providing clinical care, according to spokeswoman Brittney Thoman.

"We remain in contact with Lee (Health) and are working to accommodate any needed adult patient transfers," she said. "Since we do not have inpatient pediatrics we are not a transfer site for those patients."

If patient volumes continue to climb at Lee Health, the system can activate its surge plan, which was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, Antonucci said.

The surge plan includes converting space not typically used for patient care inside hospitals for patients, holding patients in the emergency rooms until rooms can be found, and transferring to other hospitals can be done, he said.

Antonucci said there is an expectation that seasonal residents and visitors will be returning to Southwest Florida soon, despite the devastation in the community from Ian, and hospitals will start seeing volumes go higher and stay that way.

The emergency rooms are busy but so far there have not been any life-threatening injuries from Ian clean up or inpatient deaths that are hurricane related, he said.

How have hospital employees have been impacted?

In addition to the water pressure loss, HealthPark’s parking areas were flooded from Ian and many employees and physicians’ cars were damaged and can’t be used.

That created a new challenge of how they get home and back to work. Lee Health is working on getting a count of how many employees lost cars but he said it is significant.

“We have a whole team working on transportation,” he said.

That includes reaching out to rental car agencies and working with the National Guard to get gas brought in for essential workers available to employees at Hammond Stadium.

So far, about 50 employees have reported their homes damaged and a need assistance with temporary housing.

“We don’t know if that is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Lee Health has 1,500 physicians on staff and a workforce of 15,000.

A team also is working on calling hotels and apartment complexes to get rooms and apartments. Some have already been lined up but he didn’t have a count.

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At NCH, a survey was sent out to its workforce of 4,800 employees to get information about damage to their cars and homes, and so far 83 have reported damage to either or both, Kling said.

The hospital system has secured 45 rooms at the former Super 8 hotel off Tollgate Plaza that another group had purchased for workforce housing, and Arthrex is making 22 rooms available at its Innovation Hotel in North Naples for employees, Kling said.

Some other hotels are stepping in to help with employees who need housing, he said.

The 45 rooms at the former Super 8 hotel are available on a day-to-day basis although NCH has asked them for longer use. When the property was acquired for workforce housing needs in the community, NCH had reserved 25 for longer term leasing.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee Health campuses: 400 patients have been evacuated since Hurricane Ian