Katrina Helped Prepare Saint Clare's CEO For Irene

Flooding caused issues for hospitals around New Jersey, and Saint Clare’s in Denville was no exception. Though Monday morning the hospital was accessible via Interstate 80 West after conditions improved, essential personnel needed to find ways to get inside during the storm when normal travel wasn't possible.

In particular, OB nurse Patti Roediger used a kayak and a doctor was rushed in on a frontloader by the National Guard in order to perform emergency surgery.

Part of why the hospital was able to keep running during the storm was because of the experience current CEO Les Hirsch has in similar circumstances. Hirsch became CEO of Touro Infirmary in New Orleans one week before Katrina hit and ran the health system there for three years following the storm, according Justin Windheim, group account director for the Star Group public relations firm.

Touro’s emergency room was the first to reopen after Katrina hit, and it was the site of the first post-Katrina birth. In addition, Hirsch played a leadership role working with the New Orleans health care community and the city to rebuild the region’s healthcare infrastructure, Windheim said.

Hirsch had quite an experience to call on before Irene hit on Saturday.

According to information from Windheim:

• Before Katrina hit, Hirsch began executing the disaster plan and they set up a command center and established an emergency staff of some 600 employees.
• The entire Emergency Room operation, located at the hospital’s lowest level, was moved upstairs and patients were shifted to hallways to avoid shattering glass.
• Altogether, he was responsible for about 2,000 people, including 250 patients who could not be discharged, their family members, plus hospital staff and their families, even pets. 
• Once the levees broke everything a hospital requires failed: generators, lights, support systems, air conditioning, elevators, internal and external communication, running water, toilet facilities. Food, medicine and patient care had to be hand-carried from stairwell to stairwell, as high as 10 stories in the excruciating heat.
• Meanwhile, the sickest patients were being evacuated, as some were flown by helicopters to a receiving center at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport; ambulances and buses conveyed others to hospitals outside the area. 
• Before rescue operations resumed the next day, and with only 79 patients awaiting evacuation, Les was told by the fire department superintendent that he had to close Touro Infirmary within an hour. He and senior staff conducted a floor-by-floor inspection several hours later to make certain that every patient and family member, all of the hospital staff and their families and pets had safely departed. They then locked Touro’s doors and headed for higher ground.
• Less than a month later, Touro Infirmary reopened its Emergency Room and was the first hospital to service a devastated New Orleans.