How hospitals are preparing for Milton

As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida, staff at Sarasota Memorial Hospital are preparing.

The facility in Sarasota, about an hour south of Tampa, is in the hurricane’s path but is not being evacuated because it is both the largest and safest hospital in the area.

“We are probably at the highest point in Sarasota and are the largest hospital,” said David Verinder, president and CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. “We simply have far too many patients to care for.”

Verinder estimates that 4,000 to 5,000 people – patients and staff – could be at their sites at the time of the hurricane. The main hospital, Sarasota Memorial, is the largest.

To prepare, the hospital system has ordered enough food and water to last at least seven days.

“We have linens, you know, everything you need,” he said. “We cannot guarantee that we will have anyone able to make deliveries over the weekend. So we plan on at least seven days.”

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Hospital staff will work two main shifts.

The A-Team, which includes a few hundred doctors, will remain hospitalized for the duration of the storm, Verinder said. “They will be prepared to sleep and rotate shifts for three days.”

As soon as the storm passes, the B team arrives. This makes Verinder nervous.

“We hope they are safe,” he said. “We hope that they are safe and can take the pressure off the senior team. And if they fail to overcome the roads and broken power lines, the A-Team will continue to work until they are relieved.”

At the same time, the hospital will offer child care and an animal shelter so employees can bring their children and pets, he said.

At AdventHealth Tampa’s emergency room, Dr. Alex Waldman, 35, part of the B team.

Waldman, the emergency department’s deputy medical director, will arrive after the storm to relieve the A-Team staff.

He knows how challenging this can be; He also worked the B team shift during Hurricane Helene.

“When we run into problems like we unfortunately had with Helene, where some people get flooded and can’t make it to work, we have to be a little nimble and make sure our shifts are filled,” said Waldman, who serves as head of the Storm acts in the emergency room. “But we have backup providers and surge providers all ready should they be needed.”

Further south, in Fort Myers, the A-Team at Lee Health hospitals, part of the Southwest Florida Hospital System, reported to their locations on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

Hospitals remain open for patients, although elective procedures scheduled between Tuesday and Thursday have been postponed, the spokesman said.

At one facility, the Skilled Nursing Facility, located in a low-lying area, about 100 patients were evacuated as a precaution, the spokesman said.

A Lee Health employee, Monica Collins, director of respiratory therapy at Golisano Children’s Hospital in Southwest Florida, sent her family to Miami ahead of the storm.

Collins experienced Hurricane Ian two years ago and knows the toll these storms can take on a community.

Her home is in a part of Fort Myers known to be prone to flooding, and she said she worries she will be left without a home after the storm, a fear shared by many of her co-workers.

While Collins was working at the hospital, she lost contact with her family.

“Not knowing what happened, what happened to them, was extremely stressful,” she said.

This time, with her family in Miami, she can fully dedicate herself to her work in the hospital’s emergency room, while also checking in with her co-workers to make sure they have everything they need.

Waldman, of Tampa, has a wife and two young children, a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old. Additionally, his two college-age cousins ​​and their parents will remain with his family. He prepares his house for the storm and locks the hurricane shutters.

“I’m not a lifelong Floridian, but I’ve lived in Florida for six years now, and I think that’s something that makes this experience a little different,” Waldman said. “The rapid succession of back-to-back storms and then just that trajectory of the second storm actually coming in and looking like it’s going to have a direct impact. You know, it’s concerning.”