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BWH's Richard Mack helps clean up Tower 6C after the flooding.
When a leaking pipe caused flooding on Tower 6 and the floors below early on Jan. 7, BWH staff from dozens of departments quickly sprang into action.
Nurses and other patient care staff on impacted units safely moved patients away from the water seconds after the flooding began. Within minutes, a Code Amber was initiated, and BWH leadership and emergency management staff mobilized in the Command Center in Duncan Reid to coordinate what would quickly become a hospital-wide response effort.
"Our response was the most comprehensive effort to safely restore hospital operations in recent memory, based on the nature of the services that were directly or indirectly impacted," said Barry Wante, director of Emergency Management.
The immediate concern was patient safety and relocating patients from the affected floors to other units. To accommodate this, ambulance traffic was diverted from the Emergency Department to nearby hospitals while BWH worked to accommodate patients already in-house.
On the lower levels of the Tower, the Surgical and Perioperative teams quickly came up with a plan to keep the ORs running, despite the fact that the PACU needed to close due to significant flooding. On the day of the flood, all elective surgeries were canceled so the teams could accommodate ICU and other urgent cases with the limited space they had. By the next day, the Perioperative team was able to set up PACU beds in five locations throughout the hospital to allow surgical cases to continue and patients to recover safely. This involved not only ensuring beds were available through Admitting, but working closely with Biomedical Engineering, Pharmacy, IS, Materials Management, Environmental Services, Food Services and other departments to ensure that the right systems, equipment and supplies were in place to support patient care.
Staff later developed a plan to accommodate the canceled cases over the next two weekends, including but not limited to shifting many cases to BWFH. BWFH surgical OR and PACU staff opened additional rooms and added cases so that patients in BWH's ED could be transferred and cared for. Just three days after the flooding, BWH's ORs were back to approximately 80 percent of full capacity, a testament to the multidisciplinary teamwork and dedication of everyone impacted.
Engineering, Facilities and Environmental Services staff worked around the clock on clean-up efforts, partnering with Infection Control to ensure that the clean-up was safe for patients. Engineering staff continually assessed areas as they began to dry out in the days following the flood to determine if residual moisture remained. If so, drywall and other materials were replaced to ensure a safe, sterile environment.
Au Bon Pain, the main eatery serving night shift staff, was closed due to flooding, and Food Services staff worked through the night for several days following the flood to keep the Cafeteria open for night shift staff. Au Bon Pain worked to get a kiosk in place on Tower 2.
Many areas were relocated, including the Bretholtz Center for Patients and Families and Rehabilitation Services. Nursing, Patient and Family Relations, Social Work and other staff reassured patients, ensured family members knew where patients had been relocated to and provided a calming presence amid a difficult situation.
"Staff in all roles and departments came together, working in cadence, with unity of purpose," wrote BWH President Betsy Nabel, MD, and Chief Operating Officer Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, in a message to staff following the event. "Together, we safely relocated patients, communicated with families and visitors, and worked to repair the damage to our facilities."
The PACU is back to its original location, and all other impacted services will transition back to their locations in the coming weeks.
Receiving BWH Emergency Messages
Calling the BWH Employee Emergency Announcement Line at 800-343-7036 is one way employees can receive information about emergency-related events that may affect normal hospital operation.
BWHers can also sign up for the new Employee Alert System, which enables employees to receive urgent messages-such as weather emergencies, MBTA closures and disaster situational awareness-from BWH by text message, email and/or phone call. The system is subscriber-based, so you must opt in and select how you would like to receive messages. Sign up at www.notifind.net/NF_SUBSCRIBE.
Did you know...
When BWH's Emergency Department diverts ambulance traffic to other hospitals, it is called "code black" status.