With tens of thousands of displaced flood victims across south Louisiana, medical professionals are in demand and spread thin between volunteering at local shelters and working to keep hospitals running while many of their own staff members are displaced.
Dr. David Thomas, who is leading medical operations at the Celtic Studios shelter, says many flood victims are in need of medical attention, so volunteer nurses, physicians and mental health specialists have turned out to lend their services.
“The biggest challenge we have is people rush in the first few days to help, and then as time goes on it tends to wane,” says Thomas. “The challenge over the next week or two will be getting volunteers to continue to come. They get worn out.”
So far, Thomas says, medical operations are going well considering the current situation at shelters like Celtic Studios, which transformed over the weekend from a film production studio to a makeshift home for some 2,000 flood evacuees. He credited several organizations, state agencies and the outpouring of volunteers for keeping things running smoothly.
Thomas is the medical director of The Spine Hospital of Louisiana Sleep Center at The NeuroMedical Center in Baton Rouge, which was closed Monday and Tuesday but reopened today. The doctor, a flood victim himself who had to leave his home by boat, says he will continue leading medical operations at Celtic Studios as needed.
“Our job is to manage the population and health-related issues, keeping people from accessing emergency services at hospitals,” he says. “The hospitals have to be preserved for serious emergencies.”
In the meantime, local hospitals are struggling to operate under a new normal while their medical centers are not fully staffed. Heads of hospitals in Baton Rouge and Zachary say upward of 30% of staff members are unable to get to work after being displaced by the flooding.
“The biggest challenge is our employees. Some are stranded. Some are rescued. Some are trying to get back to their homes,” says Randy Olson, CEO of Lane Regional Medical Center in Zachary. “I don’t know how to encapsulate what they’ve been going through. We cannot expect them to come here and do a great job if they have that on their mind.”
Zachary received substantial flooding, but Olson says Lane Regional dodged the worst of it. Some employees, however, weren’t so lucky. Other immediate challenges for the hospital include getting supply trucks in and finding alternate sources for food because some of the usual food product purveyors have been flooded.
But reduced staff remains the top concern for most local hospitals. Kurt Scott, vice president of ancillary services at Woman’s Hospital, says many of their employees live in Ascension and Livingston parishes where flood waters hit the hardest.
“Between 25 to 30 percent of staff have been significantly affected,” Scott says. In a hospital of about 1,800 employees, that comes out to some 500 affected.
—Annie Ourso
