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The Deadly Choices at Memorial – Part 2
“As at many American hospitals in flood zones, Memorial’s main emergency-power transfer switches were located only a few feet above ground level, leaving the electrical system vulnerable. “It won’t take much water in height to disable the majority of the medical center,” facilities personnel had warned after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Fixing the problem would be costly; a few less-expensive improvements were made.” The Deadly Choices at Memorial, The New York Times Magazine, August 30, 2009, page 31.
You have to listen to the people who take care of your buildings. Maintenance can be deferred and surfaces can be made shiny, but the chickens always come home to roost when the underlying soundness of your physical plant is weak. Taking your facilities to an even higher standard requires an exceptional commitment because the kind of expenditures we are talking about are mostly hidden and definitely not glamorous (unless you are an engineer). Hurricane hardening of health care facilities is in reality a continuous process, and in a health care system with multiple facilities, even more so. Each hurricane brings new lessons and exposes new vulnerabilities. There are storm protection technology changes to be considered. Due to the location of our hospitals, from the Florida Keys to Coral Gables, we steadily work to make improvements that will greatly increase our chances of being functional post-storm acute care hospitals.
Nevertheless, the organization has grown and in 2005 Brian Keeley, CEO, ordered a system wide re-assessment of all of our facilities ability to withstand a major hurricane. The only one to take a direct hit from a major storm, Homestead Hospital (nod to Bob Carroll, facilities manager during Andrew), was in the process of being replaced. The assessment was led by Tom Tulloch, our Corporate Vice President of Construction Management. Mr. Tulloch brought forward a plan to the Baptist Health Board Facilities Committee that analyzed the most vulnerable points of each facility, with patient care being the highest priority. The cost of the recommendations over five years was $33,000,000 and included tying down roof-top equipment such as air handlers and exhaust fans at all hospitals, installing shutters or hurricane glass at any facilities not already protected such as the newly acquired Doctors Hospital, installing flood barriers against storm surges, adding dual capacity fuel capability for generators, adding additional on campus buildings to the emergency power grid, and much, much more. The project received the unanimous approval of the Baptist Health Board. We are in the third year of implementation and the highest priorities of the plan have been accomplished. We believe that we have the most hurricane resistant facilities in South Florida. During this time, Mr. Tulloch and his team applied their accumulated knowledge to the new Homestead Hospital and the new South Miami Hospital Medical Arts Building. West Kendall Baptist Hospital is currently under construction and is being built to meet design standards for facilities to withstand a Cat 5 storm. A secondary benefit to the organization occurs when Ralph Lawson, CFO, presents our story of hurricane hardening to the insurance industry. He believes that we have achieved significant savings in our windstorm insurance premiums and the ability to obtain increased coverage. The efforts of the CEO and CFO, and the support of the Board are recognized and rewarded by the insurance industry’s response to these presentations. Mr. Tulloch also notes that “the BHSF construction project manager for the vast majority of these projects is Ara Nahapetian, a former FEMA expert on hurricane mitigation projects. His expertise has added much to the success of these efforts.”
The true value of this investment will not be recognized until there is a major storm. When there is so much competition for capital, it takes vision to go down this difficult and expensive path. We are fortunate to have Brian Keeley’s leadership steering us in the right direction.
