Hospitals and health facilities in Mississippi are continuing to provide critical care to patients in the wake of a treacherous winter storm, even as they endure no running water, power outages and impassable roads.
Scott Simmons, Mississippi Emergency Management Authority’s external affairs director, said his agency is working to bring 30 generators to North Mississippi hospitals, long-term care facilities, nursing homes and warming centers. He said multiple locations had generators that failed over the weekend, and only some had come back online by Monday morning.
Small, rural facilities in northern Mississippi are bearing the brunt of the storm’s impact.
Tippah County Hospital, a 25-bed facility in Ripley, is operating at full capacity with reduced staff and no running water, CEO Patrick Chapman told Mississippi Today. Staff at the hospital delivered a baby Saturday for the first time in years while attending to a heart attack patient. Staff joined forces and went back and forth between two rooms, offering care to patients facing life and death in “a heartwarming moment,” Chapman said.
“It shows you how people can take the worst circumstances and bring out the best,” he said.
But staff confronted grim realities outside the hospital brought on by the weekend’s wintry conditions. Monday afternoon, Chapman picked up a nurse for her evening shift. When Chapman arrived, the nurse was sitting in her car trying to stay warm because her house had no heat, he said.
The Mitchell Fire Department delivered water to Tippah County Hospital Monday so the hospital, which has been without running water since Sunday, could flush commodes. Courtesy of Patrick ChapmanIn Winona, Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital is facing many similar trials. The facility has running water, but is operating on a generator while staff members work overtime, said CEO Cori Bailey.
Staff held a disaster team meeting Tuesday to make sure the hospital had adequate food, water and beds for staff to shelter in place as long as needed. Bailey said she’s heard that could be up to two weeks.
“One of my directors rearranged her office so that she could bring something to sleep in and be here for the duration,” Bailey said.
The hospital has seen an uptick in patients who lost power and had to be admitted to continue life-sustaining treatments.
“They may not be sick enough that they need to be in the hospital, but they’ve got to have electricity to run their (oxygen) concentrators,” said Bailey.
Starting tomorrow, the hospital will start cancelling appointments.
“It hurts my heart so bad because these patients need to come in, but also, they may not be able to get here,” Bailey said.
Greg Flynn, spokesperson for the Mississippi State Department of Health, said there were several nursing homes and long-term care facilities that reported being without power and having difficulties operating generators Sunday, all of which were working with local emergency management authorities to restore power. He said he did not know how many facilities were impacted.
Cornerstone Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Corinth, has been using a generator all weekend, and has a maintenance man staying overnight to ensure all the rooms are well heated. Everyone there is pitching in additional duties, said Monica Jackson, the facility’s human resources officer, who was on phone duty Monday.
“We are working on little to no staff,” Jackson said. “Our administrator tried to go and pick up a few people that he could. We’ve got a few people who have been here since this all started Friday night – with no relief. They’ve just been taking naps.”
In the counties surrounding Oxford, community mental health workers for Communicare have been stuck at facilities since Friday because other staff members aren’t able to navigate roads — blocked by trees and downed power lines — to relieve them. Executive Director Melody Madaris told Mississippi Today in a text message she does not know how long the on-site employees will have to continue working.
Madaris said she expects most Communicare services will be closed all week, but its crisis intervention team will be available.
Wendy Bailey, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, wrote in an email the community mental health center that serves counties in the state’s northeast corner is closed and without power.
Getting patients to timely care has become a harrowing experience in many parts of the state, including the Mississippi Delta. Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s emergency room remained open through the storm, though the hospital’s clinics, outpatient rehabilitation center and retail pharmacy were closed Monday. The hospital provided accommodations for in-house staff since Friday, said spokesperson Christine Hemphill.
The hospital’s helipad was cleared Monday morning, allowing two patients to be transferred to a higher level of care, Hemphill said. Three additional patients are awaiting transfer.
A snow plow cleared the helipad at Tippah County Hospital Monday so an orthopedic surgery patient could be airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. Courtesy of Patrick ChapmanPafford Medical Services, one of the largest ambulance providers in the state and the company that provides medical helicopter services to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, began transporting critically ill or injured patients by air from around the state to hospitals in Jackson and Memphis from select facilities late Sunday after landing pads were cleared of ice.
Unusually thick ice on helipads and continuous precipitation kept air ambulance services grounded in many areas over the weekend, said Clay Hobbs, chief operating officer of Pafford Medical Services.
By midday Monday, most of the state’s hospital helipads were back in service, he said. The company is working to keep as many aircrafts in the air as possible to transport patients to hospitals that can meet their care needs. The company’s emergency operations center, which opened on Friday, triages air and ground transports to ensure that the patients with the greatest needs and who can be transferred safely are transported first.
“Air Ambulance will be busy for the next two to three days,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs said the company has seen an increased number of 911 calls for traffic accidents and other medical issues since the storm hit.
Ambulance providers across the state are working to attend to the health needs of patients, particularly those in areas without power who are receiving oxygen or use medical devices that require electricity.
“Ambulance providers are the first line of defense for those patients,” he said.
Pafford ambulances are also working to transport patients to Jackson or Memphis for higher levels of care than local hospitals can provide. Operations are fairly normal, Hobbs said, but emergency providers are still encountering some obstacles.
One ambulance transporting a patient was stranded on the interstate for several hours this morning after an 18-wheeler blocked traffic and made the road impassable, he said. The patient survived.
All Baptist Memorial hospitals in the state are open and have power, said spokesperson Kimberly Alexander. However, clinics in north Mississippi were closed Monday, Alexander said, and the system’s Oxford hospital was not offering elective or outpatient surgeries and procedures. They will re-assess on a day-to-day basis, she said.
All eight North Mississippi Health Services hospital locations are open, said David Wilson, chief operating officer for North Mississippi Health Services and president for North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo in a statement. Some clinics and outpatient services are closed today or opening later in the day, and most clinics are expected to return to normal operations Tuesday.
County Road 703 in Blue Mountain was impassable as of Sunday. Courtesy of Patrick ChapmanLarge hospitals in Jackson say they are operating as usual and are prepared to accept transfers from smaller hospitals.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s main campus in Jackson, the state’s largest hospital, is operating normally, said spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle. UMMC Holmes County is operating on a generator, and UMMC clinics north of Lexington are closed Monday.
St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson is currently experiencing typical transfer volumes, but anticipates an increase as road and travel conditions improve, spokesperson Meredith Bailess said in an email.
“We remain prepared to support the needs of these impacted areas,” Bailess said.
Wendy Bailey, the mental health department executive director, said some of the generators at North Mississippi Regional Center’s community homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which her agency runs, have failed. But at least one of the generators was up and running again by Monday morning.
The Department’s legislative budget request for the upcoming fiscal year requests more funding to replace the backup power sources at the regional center and North Mississippi State Hospital. After the agency’s board meeting in December, Wendy Bailey said the state hospital’s generator will not pass its upcoming review if it is not replaced.
“Backup generators are essential to support operations during a power outage,” she said in her Tuesday email. “These programs are providing 24/7 services to some of Mississippi’s most vulnerable residents.”
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