Hurricane Planning in Conway Meant Anticipating New Patients’ Needs
On the Sunday before Hurricane Florence's expected arrival in the Carolinas, the pharmacy department at 210-bed
The order included antimicrobials, i.v. fluids, and pharmaceuticals to manage "things that might likely happen during a hurricane," Gajewski said.
Ten vials of snake antivenin were in that order, he said, as were prothrombin complex concentrate, alteplase, tenecteplase, tirofiban, and an assortment of cardiac medications.
Those vials of antivenin were in addition to the 12 or 18 vials that the pharmacy always keeps in stock, Gajweski said.
Parts of the city, which sits on the west bank of the
When interviewed the same day that the president visited Conway, Gajewski said his pharmacy team was preparing for "catastrophic flooding" in areas around the hospital.
"The concern is that roads all around us to and from the hospital are probably going to be inundated with water and ... potentially will be blocked off," he said.
Gajewski said he ordered the additional prothrombin complex concentrate in case people, in coping with the storm and its aftermath, came to the emergency department for treatment of uncontrolled bleeding. The FDA-approved labeling for the plasma-derived product describes its use for the urgent reversal of the coagulation factor deficiency induced by warfarin therapy in adults with acute major bleeding.
As for the alteplase, tenecteplase, tirofiban, and cardiac medications, they were obtained because of the healthcare situation in
Governor
"When they closed down Grand Strand," Gajewski said, "that means that their heart, cath lab, and their open-heart surgery center was now no longer operational."
Everything that Gajewski ordered from wholesaler
The driver, he said, described negotiating detour after detour in a journey that took several hours longer than usual.
During the height of the hurricane, the hospital -- which normally schedules sufficient employees to care for 120 patients -- had 147 patients, including some from
About a half-dozen members of the pharmacy staff stayed in the hospital during the hurricane, which released "buckets and buckets of rain" but lower-than-expected winds, he said.
Gajewski stayed at the hospital on a cot in his office on the night that Hurricane Florence arrived. His assistant director stayed the next night. Two pharmacists and three pharmacy technicians made use of the department's conference room. A third pharmacist, whose relative happened to own a nearby hotel, stayed there. The pharmacist working the night shift housed in the
The pharmacy technicians, all women, "created their own space in the conference room" by moving the table and chairs and positioning two cots and an air mattress, Gajewski said.
Click here to view the graph: (https://www.ashp.org/news/2018/09/25/hurricane-planning-in-conway-meant-anticipating-new-patients-needs)
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