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 Today in Health IT, we are discussing winter storms disrupting health systems across the Midwest and Mid Atlantic. We're also going to throw in a perspective about the Southern California fires as well. My name is Sarah Richardson. I'm a former CIO for several health care systems, most notably within HCA and Optum, and now president of the This Week Health 229 Executive Development Community, where we host a set of channels, and events dedicated to transforming healthcare one connection at a time.

Today's episode is brought to you by Chrome OS. Imagine a healthcare system where technology works seamlessly in the background, keeping your data secure, your teams connected, and your patients at the center of care. Visit thisweekhealth. com slash Google Chrome OS to learn more. And I am joined today by Kate Gamble, managing editor here at This Week Health.

Kate, welcome to the show. Thank you, Sarah. Good to be here. It's always good to get back in action. This is our first show in the new year. And what a heck of a start of the year it has been. Winter storms are disrupting health services. There's wildfires across California, and we're understanding that numerous health systems in the path of major winter storms are moving across large swaths of the Midwest, mid Atlantic regions, and have closed clinics and are rescheduling elective procedures.

A few things for us to think about when. Big events occur such as these are state of emergency declarations, hospital preparedness, staffing strategies, collaborative efforts, community coordination. Kate, some of your thoughts on this one.

There's a lot of different directions we could go. But if you're looking at just winter storms, which is a big thing now, things like power outages.

water problems due to below freezing temperatures. And there was a blizzard last year in Buffalo that forced Buffalo General Medical Center to shelter in place for 55 hours. And that's so much time. That means the staff can't leave, relief can't come. So this is really a big deal. We can sometimes brush it off as, Oh, it's just a blizzard, especially if you live in the Northeast like me, but it's not so much that goes into this and so much that needs to be considered.

From the CIO's perspective, there's a lot that needs to be looked at.

Some of the key considerations for CIOs and other leaders are you need to ensure the IT infrastructure resilience, implementing backup systems and redundancies to maintain the EHR and communication networks during power outages or system failures, and also facilitating remote access. We know now more than ever how important this is.

Need to be sure That you have secure remote access to critical systems and you need to coordinate communication, establish clear communication channels between IT, clinical staff, and external partners to disseminate information swiftly and accurately during emergencies. And that's just some of them.

Absolutely, because when you consider even just the hospital preparedness measures one of the things we saw was the University of Virginia Medical Center thinking about backup generators and ensuring continuous power supplies, elective surgeries, and outpatient services being canceled to focus on emergency care.

These aren't new things in the repertoire of a facility or the CIO. The backup generators are an obvious thing. You have one, you have two. Do you have enough fuel for these things? When you are dealing with major crisis interventions and things like hurricanes, those are always a big deal. I learned from Hurricane Katrina at Tulane, when I worked for HCA, that randomly having things like cat litter in case there is a failure in the plumbing actually works for humans as well.

And it sounds disgusting, except that it's not. If you have to go to measures that allow you to. Have preparedness in case something happens. Some of those initial check marks are, again, what's in the basement in case there's flooding? Where's your cat litter? Where's your diesel fuel?

You become really intertwined with the facilities teams as well, because a lot of these things will fall to them. So you're handling staffing strategies. Are there local accommodations? If you're sheltering in place, and I learned this as a, Actually in the hotel business, always have a change of clothes and a toothbrush in your office if you run a 24 7 operation because you never know what could happen.

I'm also always impressed with the community coordination. The hospitals know with local authorities, road crews, critical access routes, medical facilities that can be cleared or pathways that cause you not to have to divert or that emergency services can still reach your hospital are really One of the things though, too, is just preparing for adverse weather in these 24 7, 365 environments. Kate, what did you find?

, there's a lot that goes into that planning too. You have comprehensive emergency management plans where you develop and regularly update plans that address various disaster scenarios, which can include, like we said, hurricanes, snowstorms, etc.

Other types too. On site accommodations for staff, as you talked about. Sleeping arrangements. This is something that you really do need to think about. Meals, essential supplies. And then of course, you have to look at supply chain management. Are you going to have enough essential supplies, including medications, food, fuel?

And so that means collaborating with suppliers to ensure timely deliveries before and after storms. And then infrastructure resilience. It goes without saying, that's obviously very important, you have to have the infrastructure to withstand extreme weather and regular drills and training.

So they're so different in nature. But at the same time, you have to prepare your staff to deal with this. And you have to be nimble and agile as changes arise. And most importantly, you need to have a strong technology infrastructure. So there's really such a strong leadership component to this too, and making sure that, your teams know what to do in a crisis, regardless of the type of crisis.

Yeah, think about the fact that you have the infrastructure resilience. I think about, can it withstand freezing temperatures?

Can it withstand outages? What are the things that you can consider in terms of just the weather and robust backup power systems? You don't realize that it could happen until it does in your area. And there's certain things that are just going to wipe out communications, wipe out your abilities. And you need to be aware of that.

And how long does it take to recover from certain aspects? Then we jump into the conversation about SoCal. You have a fire that wipes out clinics or parts of your community. Those are not coming back any time soon. The ongoing fires in SoCal. They highlight another form of extreme weather that presents unique challenges for healthcare organizations.

They demand swift action, not only from the emergency responders, but also from the healthcare leaders tasked with ensuring patient and staff safety under these conditions. You've heard on the news and you've seen the stories that there are first responders whose own homes have been wiped out or people who can't get back to their neighborhoods.

How do you find temporary housing? How do you find longer term housing? While you are caring for your community in these scenarios, some of the things that you and I found about adopting strategies in scenarios such as this air quality management, the healthcare facilities in affected areas, such as hospitals and urgent care centers are enhancing our air filtration systems to protect patients with respiratory conditions from worsening symptoms due to poor air quality.

Kate, what did you find on evacuation readiness?

It's such a scary thing to think about, but it's a reality, especially now for so many people. But hospitals and long term care facilities that are located near fire zones in SoCal, they've developed rapid evacuation plans where they prioritize vulnerable patients who require continuous care.

And that means also coordinating transport resources, like ambulances, and that, which is critical to ensure patient safety. And you also need to have emergency triage for fire related injuries. Unfortunately, they're seeing a lot of those, so this is where surge planning comes into effect to ensure adequate staffing and supplies.

And of course, community coordination. We touched on it a bit before, but leaders need to be working closely with local authorities to keep access routes clear, provide medical support at evacuation centers, and ensure essential services remain operational.

I recall in a previous role, I had an opportunity to hire for one of our infrastructure lead roles.

And the person was like the safety coordinator on a nuclear Marine sub. And I was like, you're hired. I knew this guy would be able to handle disaster and crisis planning. And he had great leadership and technical skills as well. But just that sense of that always preparedness perspective and really appreciated that The understanding that you may live in an area where you don't get as many adverse things happening, but I'll be, transparent on this one.

Throughout the emergency systems, I help a local hospital with their planning. It's just important to be thinking about that and then being able to support your community during a crisis, especially in this one with the fires. And you and I thought about this yesterday is really considering how empathy fits into all of these scenarios.

It is crucial to view these challenges through an empathetic lens, whether it's patient, staff, and families. They're gonna experience fear, trauma, and loss during these events. Mental health support, because offering counseling and mental health resources to staff and community to cope with the emotional toll of the crisis is super important.

Overall staff wellness, and I believe we probably got better at this nationwide because of having to experience COVID, but the strain on healthcare workers who may be personally impacted Say, by the fire, while continuing to provide care, having flexible shifts, rest areas, and access to support. You're seeing and hearing some of these firefighters working 48 hour plus shifts.

And then the equity in the care, if you can ensure that underserved and at risk populations who could be disproportionately affected by disasters have equal access to care and resources. That's all part of the responsibility of leading these organizations. And then Kate, Is a really a call to action for healthcare leaders.

What do you recommend when dealing with winter storms, fires, natural disasters, heck even a pandemic? What are some of the things that you recommend?

So what leaders really need to be thinking about is first and foremost, I think ensuring continuity of care and making sure you have the infrastructure and communication systems to be able to maintain operations during emergencies because you're still going to get so many patients who need help.

That's maybe not even related to the crisis. And then, of course, prioritizing safety and resilience. Which means regularly assessing risks and preparing contingency plans tailored to deal with local vulnerabilities, and this is probably the most important one, but leading with empathy, acknowledging the human impact of disasters, and fostering an environment of support for staff and communities.

And every crisis is different. As we said, each one comes with their own challenges, and it's really important to acknowledge that and to make sure that, people feel seen.

Agree, and we'll cover more about this as these stories unfold, especially what's happening in SoCal, but again, our community is all across the nation.

So whether it's a winter storm, it's a hurricane, it's a tornado, it's a flood, it's a fire, we're always in this together. And so please reach out to us if there's anything we can do, and we'll make sure we keep covering stories to help you be as prepared as possible. Remember to share this podcast 📍 with a friend or a colleague.

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