La. hospitals in path of Hurricane Laura respond

Some hospitals in Lake Charles, La., sustained "significant damage" when the Category 4 Hurricane Laura hit overnight Wednesday.

While there has been roof, window and water damage to area providers, "none of it has been that severe that the hospital can't operate," said Paul Salles, CEO of the Louisiana Hospital Association.

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 spokesperson for CHRISTUS.

Losing city water access is a critical issue for area hospitals, and that could affect their ability to operate, Salles said. "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.

Hospitals are running on generators because of power outages, Salles said.

Lake Charles has not flooded like New Orleans experienced with Hurricane Katrina, which has left the area still navigable, he said. Some hospitals are transferring some patients out.

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

Medical personnel sheltered in place to care for patients who couldn't be discharged.

While its emergency department was open Friday, the system is 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 up 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 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.

During a hurricane's expected 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."

Part of that involved finding safe places for staff to sleep on site.

"In the past we've been able to use empty patient beds and many areas of the hospital to house staff. But this year, with so many beds and areas of our hospitals full, and the need to maintain distance, we had to work harder to ensure we had enough sleeping space for our teams," Kiser said.