“Just when you think it’s more
than anybody can handle, they
handle it. It gives you a different
perspective on why you’re doing
the job that you’re doing and how
appreciative you should be of the
people that work for you.
Texas, we received so many volunteers we had to put
an employee on the hotline, and it took about four of
us to reply to all the volunteer emails. We may be
large—indeed, nationwide—but we are fundamentally
loyal members of our group practice.”
“Every time I go through one of these Irma-type
experiences, it changes me from the perspective of
humbling me to what our people can actually
accomplish in adverse conditions,” Dr. Schwartz says.
“Just when you think it’s more than anybody can
handle, they handle it. It gives you a different
perspective on why you’re doing the job that you’re
doing and how appreciative you should be of the
people that work for you.”
“Two words that popped into my mind were humility
and pride,” says Matt Stapleton, executive vice
president of TeamHealth Anesthesiology. “When you
see these folks come together and do their jobs and
see the passion, the dedication, and the work that goes
into it. Whatever we threw at them or whatever they
brought up, somebody had the answer.
“I had deep concern about what would happen to our
co-workers, our patients, our ability to navigate
through this,” adds Rob Evans, executive vice president
of TeamHealth Southeast. “They were just fearless.
The only thing they were concerned with was being
able to be there and take care of the patients. They
were just heroic in their efforts.”
Finding workarounds to provide effective care
Through it all, TeamHealth teams collaborated when
select facilities had to evacuate and close for a few days
so that patient populations could be managed. Three of
the client’s freestanding EDs and one hospital had to
close due to mandatory evacuations or water breaches
into the interior. Another freestanding ED, which had
just been constructed, was catastrophically flooded.
“Flooding and outages also affected our command and
control functions among the leadership team who
remained local,” Dr. Merkle says. “From day one, our
leadership team was fantastically engaged and
responsive, but as more physical barriers appeared—
losing Internet, evacuating themselves and their
families—it got much tougher. Some of our physicians
reported to work from shelters. Our HR leaders and
teams were constantly on the phone with us identifying
ways to locate our people and verify they were safe.
They did not rest until everyone in Houston had a call
or was at least located. It was a huge amount of work
but the right thing to do.”
Emergency room physicians were seemingly
everywhere during the storms, Evans recalls, which
shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s ever interacted with
them.
“It’s kind of in their DNA,” he says. “They’re rushing
into these disasters when everybody else is rushing
wisely to safety. We actually have to watch our
providers because we need to make sure that we can
get them in safely and also back out again. They’re
heroic. We had doctors sleeping in corners of the
hospital and wouldn’t go home. It was just wonderful
to work with these folks.”
And regardless of specialty, on this occasion they were
of one mind when it came to patient care and
protection.
“We have ER doctors, we have advanced practice
clinicians, we have hospitalists, we have
anesthesiologists, we have primary care physicians in
urgent care settings and post-acute settings,” Schwartz
adds. “When the storm hit, they were all completely in
sync and working like a family and working like a team.
There was complete cooperation, they were helping
each other out, they were working together, and they
were supporting each other. It was amazing.”
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