Lessons Learned from Hurricane Ike

Mitchell, Laurie; Anderle, Diane; Nastally, Kathleen; Sarver, Troy; Hafner-Burton, Tana; Owens, Sheron

doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2009.03.002

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Volume 89, Issue 6 , Pages 1073-1078, June 2009

Lessons Learned from Hurricane Ike

Laurie Mitchell, RN, BSN, MS, MBA, EdD, CNOR
- Laurie Mitchell, RN, BSN, MS, MBA, EdD, CNOR, is the director of education/service excellence at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston, TX.
Diane Anderle, RN, BSN
- Diane Anderle, RN, BSN, is the director of nursing at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston, TX.
Kathleen Nastally, RN, BSN, CNOR
- Kathleen Nastally, RN, BSN, CNOR, is the assistant director of surgical services at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston, TX.
Troy Sarver, RN, BSN
- Troy Sarver, RN, BSN, is the director of surgical support at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston, TX.
Tana Hafner-Burton, RN, BSN, MSN
- Tana Hafner-Burton, RN, BSN, MSN, is the chief nursing officer and chief operating officer at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston, TX.
Sheron Owens, RN, BSN, MSN
- Sheron Owens, RN, BSN, MSN, is the assistant director of nursing at Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston, TX.

ABSTRACT

After the poorly planned evacuation for Hurricane Rita in 2005, many health care systems in the Houston area updated the disaster plans they would implement in the event of a major disaster.

In September 2008, Texas health care systems in the Houston-Galveston area had the opportunity to execute those plans when Hurricane Ike made landfall. Despite hours of hurricane preparation at the Texas Orthopedic Hospital in Houston, TX, before the storm, we found that there were still lessons to be learned from Hurricane Ike that can be used by other health care systems to prepare for disaster. AORN J 89 (June 2009) 1073–1078. © AORN, Inc, 2009.

Key words: disaster plan , hurricane preparation