Monthly Archive for September, 2008

Family Medicine: News from the Island

Published
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Family Medicine
on September 14, 2008
in Family Medicine
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I finally got a message from Dr. Thompson this evening. Can’t quite express how grateful I was to hear her voice and know she’s ok. I also got a call from Dr. Donna Melendez with information. After that I heard back again from Dr. Cass with his final bit of information for the night.

Drs. Melendez and Yadiki will be leaving the Island tomorrow, in accordance with UTMB’s announcement that they are shrinking the on-site staff to only those absolutely necessary. At this time Family Medicine does not need any relief of duty on campus.

We will continue to be at emergency status. Employees can expect to continue to be paid at their normal rate. If you have any questions about this, please send them to me or call and I will try to track down an answer for you.

Water service and power are currently unavailable on the island. It is expected that water service will be restored in the next 2-3 days, and electricity in 2 weeks, with 4 weeks as a current worst case scenario. (Please remember this is all tentative.) Employees should note that restoration of power is prerequisite for a return to normal business operations.

I’ve gotten many questions about return to business and the condition of our clinics. The information we have now is that there was minimal water damage to both the Primary Care Pavilion and Stewart Road Family Health. We do not know what “minimal” entails, but it is thought that it’s basic repairs.

Our department leaders are beginning to formulate plans. Dr. Thompson and Judy have been in contact on the Island and are supposed to meet tomorrow and pass information back to me. Dr. Cass is now home and may join them if possible. I am supposed to talk to Dr. Thompson tomorrow, and will share the details of the tentative plans after that.

As to communications, Dr. Cass has contacted all of Leadership. I spoke with or got messages from nearly all of our academic staff today. Susan Rozycki, Doris Courteau, and Madalyn Tucker were following up with the coders, FM Clinic staff, and Stewart Road staff respectively. I believe the program directors are all staying in touch with their faculty. So far it sounds like everyone is safe. We are scattered around, but well.

Have a good night and stay safe.

Julia

Update: 7:30 p.m., Sunday, September 14

Published
by
Information Services
on September 14, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 15 Comments

With the arrival today of a Disaster Medical Assistance Team on campus, UTMB will turn over its patient care responsibilities for a time to focus on full recovery. This means that we will begin releasing many essential employees (the majority of them clinical staff) over the next few days and calling in other essential personnel to focus on business functions that are key to the recovery effort.
On a related note, because DMAT personnel are here, we don’t need clinical volunteers at this point. If you’re interested in volunteering in some other capacity and you’re an essential employee, please let us know.
The city is now allowing essential UTMB personnel – with ID/E1 badges – back on the island, and supervisors are working on their recovery staffing plans now. Please wait to hear from your supervisor before heading back to the campus. It is too early for research faculty to return. The only essential research personnel we will be able to accommodate at this point are those coming to replenish dry ice.
Although city officials have said that UTMB will be among the first to receive power, we don’t expect that to happen for two to four weeks. As a result, UTMB will remain on emergency status and in lock-down mode for an indefinite period of time.

EDUCATION
There will be no classes for at least a week. Dr. Garland Anderson is working with the deans and residency program directors on the details. Students and residents should continue to check this site, the alert site and phone line, and be on the lookout for First Call messages.

RESEARCH
Dr. Anderson and Research Services personnel are working to bring essential research staff in to attend to animals, freezer repositories and equipment. This is a “protect and preserve” effort only. Active research will not resume at this point. But, with the emphasis shifting from clinical care for the time being, the research facilities are our highest priority.
We have restored emergency power to MRB, Building 17, BSB, GNL, Shope Lab, Old Shrine and Surgical Research Annex. Departments that have research labs with research freezers in any OTHER buildings need to send their E1 early-return staff to campus tomorrow to replenish dry ice.
Laboratory staff in buildings that currently have emergency power should not return tomorrow and will be turned away without access. We will notify you as soon as we can when E1 early-return staff can come back.
The E1 staff who are returning tomorrow should report to the MRB lobby starting at 10 a.m. Please wear appropriate lab-entry attire and bring your UTMB ID/E1 badge. Please try to notify other E1 early-return staff in your department so this message gets widely distributed.

HEALTH SYSTEM
As noted, our clinical activities will be minimal for the next two weeks. Dr. Karen Sexton will be leading the Health System’s efforts to plan for resumption of full services, including hospitals, on- and off-campus clinics, and our Correctional Managed Care enterprise.
Many of our emergency generators are running smoothly. Our communications systems are coming on line one by one. We hope to have water for showers and other essentials within the next couple of days. We do have plenty of drinking water on hand. We are bringing in outside crews and an environmental health team to help with clean-up and recovery.
As Dr. Sexton told employees during today’s 3 p.m. briefing, “We had a plan to care for our patients and our people, and it worked. Now it’s time to step back, take some well-deserved rest, and get this great institution back on its feet.”
Thanks to everyone who’s volunteered to help with the recovery effort. We will be back and stronger than ever.

Family Medicine: news to come

Published
by
Family Medicine
on September 14, 2008
in Family Medicine
. 2 Comments

All in Family Medicine,

Today I spoke with Dr. Alvah Cass. Dr. Cass just returned home in League City, and is working on contacting the Leadership Committee and working on a plan. At this time all of our employees should continue to monitor the official UTMB announcements and broadcasts at http://www.utmb.edu. According to the last official post I read, UTMB remains on emergency status. No estimate as to when that might change was given. Please rest assured we will stay in communication with you as best we can.

I do know that Dr. Nash and Linda Hubbell are in contact with the residents and with residency staff. Doris Courteau was in the process of contacting clinic staff today. I am working on contacting the academic employees. If you have not yet heard from one of us or from your supervisor, please contact us or your supervisor. We would like to make sure all our folks are ok, and figure out where everyone is.

If you have not already done so, you may use UTMB email by logging on to http://ems.messageone.com.

Please be patient, and stay safe.
Julia Essex

Information Services Update

Published
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Information Services
on September 14, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 15 Comments

Since Chris Comer and her team are doing an exceptional job of keeping everyone informed through this blog, I have discontinued the IS updates so people focus on the insitutional ones.  The IS team on-site is doing great work with limited people resources and things are progressing well.  If you need additional information, please e-mail me or talk to your supervisor after our conference calls.  Thanks…Todd Leach (tleach@utmb.edu)

UTMB update: Sunday, Sept. 14, 11:20 a.m.

Published
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Information Services
on September 14, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 45 Comments

UTMB remains on emergency status. Employees and students will be advised when they can return. We don’t have an estimated date at this time.

Access to the island is limited to disaster response personnel. The incident command team and area supervisors are working on a plan to bring employees who live ON the island in to relieve staff. We don’t know precisely when, but will do our best to keep you informed. If you are a UTMB employee on the island and available to relieve staff who stayed through the storm, send your name and contact information via this blog, or call 409-747-9038.

Facilities update. Power, water and gas remain the primary issues. The portable generators are working and more are on the way. But most areas are still without air conditioning and lights. The county is working to restore water and natural gas lines to the island and hopes to have at least a temporary fix within 48-72 hours. Two cooling tents and a portable kitchen have been ordered to facilitate food services.

Information specific to the research community will be coming shortly.

Communication internally and with the “world outside” is still spotty. Internet connectivity has been restored in a few areas, but phones still aren’t working, with the exception of those in the command center — and even they aren’t completely reliable. Cell service is sporadic. And there is no email service. However, the National Guard is setting up a satellite dish now, and we hope to have improved communication capability within the next 24 hours.

We have established a central message board and will post phone messages and blog postings (to utmbinfo.com) for employees on a regular basis. We’re also working to establish a few external phone lines so employees can make personal calls out.

Supervisors are working to schedule relief time for employees who live ON the island to check on their homes. A curfew of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is being enforced on the island.

The Emergency Department has seen nearly 100 patients, but we are encouraging island residents to go to Ball High School (4115 Avenue O), where a DMAT team is stationed to handle the medical needs of island residents. A health station has been set up within the hospital to address any health or emotional needs employees may have.

Human Resources and Finance are working on issues related to payroll, benefits and general support.

Things are improving hour by hour. While everyone is exhausted and sweaty, spirits are still high and we’re looking forward to resuming normal operations as soon as possible. We want to thank everyone for their concern and support.

We’ll provide updates regularly.

8 p.m. Saturday update

Published
by
Information Services
on September 13, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 4 Comments

Sorry for the lateness of this update.

UTMB remains on emergency status. A preliminary assessment of the campus indicates that, in general, the facilities suffered minimal structural damage, although we do have some water and wind damage. We are also still on emergency power, without air conditioning or lighting in many areas. We have no water for showers or toilets, and we don’t yet have phone service. We are working to bring all these systems back on line as quickly as possible.

Now that the water has receded, we’ve been able to conduct an initial assessment of the research building exteriors on the central campus and saw no signs of major structural damage. The next priority was to restore operation of the emergency generators that had stopped running. We also checked the status of the animal colonies and found the animals in good condition. The research building assessment teams will continue the survey tomorrow.

We have moved the Emergency Department back to the Trauma Center and have seen approximately 16 patients so far, none of them serious. As we noted earlier, we are providing emergency services only at this point, which means we are stabilizing and treating patients and then transfering them to other facilities.

Tomorrow, we will decide how best to give employees here a chance to leave for a bit and check out their homes. We don’t yet have a date when we’ll be calling employees in to relieve the people who stayed. As soon as we do, we will let you know through as many communications sources as we have available. Stay put for now and stay tuned.

About the 409-747-9038 number listed on this site. Unlike the alert line, which is a recorded message, this goes straight to the UTMB command center. Since it’s our main phone link to the outside, we ask that you call only if it’s an emergency.

Be safe. Continue to monitor the site. The next update will be
tomorrow morning.

Update from 3 p.m. UTMB Staff Briefing

Published
by
Information Services
on September 13, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 2 Comments

First we apologize for the delay in this posting but we had some technical difficulties.

By 8:00 p.m. tonight, UTMB will re-activate the Trauma Center. We will be working to increase capacity but for now we will still be a ‘treat and transfer’ only service. We cannot be a full-service operation at this time. We have already seen 16 emergency patients so far - none serious to date. We are expecting more because Galveston has sustained a lot of damage. Texas Task Force One and EMS are responding to these issues.

We are also working on having a more reliable communication system. Most emergency ‘orange’ phones are working. We recently announced the (409) 747-9038 line as a call in for Employees and the Media but we just are not staffed for the volume. Please monitor this web site or www.utmb.edu (129.109.242.13 works too) for information and please, please only call the number if it is absolutely necessary. This number needs to be as free as possible to conduct on-site operations. We promise to communicate via other mechanisms as soon as we know when we are able to ask employees to return.

We are stabilizing power in John Sealy Hospital and in the Trauma Center. We have also restored two banks of elevators in Children’s Hospital.

Teams are still assessing damage campus wide. Flooding did occur in the hospital complex on the first floor but the water has now receded. Clean up continues and will for a while.

We are still asking all employees to stay indoors until we know it is safe outside. We do not know yet when we will be calling people back. We are still on emergency status and emergency power. Please continue to check utmbinfo.com or www.utmb.edu for information.

Last but certainly not least, Dr. Richardson addressed a large group of employees on-site and told staff that she’d always wanted to meet a hero, a real hero, but she honestly never dreamed she would be in a room full of heroes.

Our next update will be at 6:00 p.m.

UTMB Emergency Operations Center Leadership

SPECIAL BULLETIN: Galveston National Lab, Keiller Building, & Shope Lab

Published
by
Information Services
on September 13, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 4 Comments

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Galveston National Lab (GNL) has suffered no damage as far as we can see.  The building was at the end phase of construction.  There was no research taking place and no one is occupying the building.

The Keiller Building did experience some flooding in the basement but the rest of the facility is fine.  There has been no loss of biocontainment or biosecurity.  All labs were decontaminated and secured prior to the arrival of the storm.  All agents have been stored in proper containers.  The Shope Lab within the Keiller Building also remains secure.

UTMB Emergency Operations Center

UTMB Emergency Operations Center Update

Published
by
Information Services
on September 13, 2008
in Institutional Information
. 5 Comments

UTMB is fine.  There has been only one minor injury.  A damage assessment of the campus is in progress.  We are asking all employees to remain inside until it is safe to go out.  We do not yet know when we will release people to go and check their homes.

We are currently on emergency power and we are working to bring systems back online.  The ED is providing emergency services only until further notice.  Today three patients and one family member were safely transferred out of the hospital.  As the water continues to go down, we are expecting more patients.  Communications and power are still intermittent and we are working to stabilize them.

Employees and Media needing additional information can call the UTMB Emergency Operations Center at (409) 770-9038.  We will provide regular updates at 12:00 noon, 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. and special bulletins if needed.

UTMB Emergency Operations Center Leadership

FM: UTMB email now available

Published
by
Family Medicine
on September 13, 2008
in Family Medicine and Institutional Information
. 5 Comments

Thanks to those fabulous folks in Information Services, UTMB email is back online. It looks like Blackberry services are now back online too.

To access your email, go to http://ems.messageone.com. Use your full UTMB email address as your login name, i.e. jmessex@utmb.edu. Use your regular UTMB email password.

Please remember you will not see messages that were sent or received prior to the switch to the emergency email system. (You’re also going to see all the spam that UTMB usually filters out for you. Please be careful and remember — don’t even open emails that don’t come from a sender you recognize and should be getting mail from.

If you log on online you have full access to the Global Address Book. I’m not sure if this is available from Blackberries.

Will post/broadcast more as I get more information.

For those who are away and trying to see images. NBC Channel 2 in Houston is streaming a live broadcast online and right now they are transmitting images of damage. Also, a Galveston Daily News reporter, Leigh Jones, is posting updates on Twitter at http://twitter.com/leighjones.

-Julia