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In this first week we’ve accomplished a lot. Today there were dehumidifiers near the PCP beginning the process of drying it out. Some of the clinical systems are coming online tomorrow morning (not EPIC yet). One of the issues with bringing these systems up is the lack of AC for the servers (you all know how cold we keep our little servers, imagine what it must be like for the servers that run the whole university!)

Family Medicine is planning to start assessing and preparing Stewart Road Family Health as soon as possible. We hope to be here to meet the Galveston community’s needs as residents return to the Island.

For those of you waiting to return to your homes here, watch the Noon press conference on Saturday — we’re hoping that the Mayor and City Manager may lay out a time line and process for the return of residents to the Island.

Finally, the UTMB main site mentioned the availability of Employee Assistance Program services to all employees. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of these services. For more information, please visit http://www.utmb.edu.

I won’t be posting any more news this weekend, but even though we aren’t posting news it doesn’t mean the work has stopped. I’ll give you another update early next week. Please try to have a safe, enjoyable weekend wherever you are.

Julia

All,

Today we saw a lot of progress at UTMB. As you may have seen, UTMB announced that 4 mainland clinics will be opening tomorrow (see http://www.utmb.edu for more info). We’re also hoping an access hotline for patients will be up and running soon.

Water is back in a few parts of the Island and UTMB tonight. Electrical workers are all over, working hard to restore power.

Some of you have expressed concern for Dr. Thompson. Judy reported that she is well. Her house is one of the ones that got water back today, and she has gotten some rest after a very long weekend.

The really big news for today is that Judy was able to do a walk-through of the PCP today. She says the first floor is a little soggy and the carpets will have to be pulled out. She also went through the second floor and it looks good. There were only a few places where it looked like the roof leaked, and only one of those was over a desk/office (Nickie’s). I think she said they were supposed to begin tearing out carpets pretty quickly.

Outside UTMB, businesses on the Island are working hard to clean up and offer some services. In all it sounds like those down on the Island are working hard to clean things up and get basic services back online so it is safe for the rest of us to come back. I personally would like to thank all of them for their hard work. I know we’ve got a lot of work to do still, but I look forward to the day when we can look back on this and say that we triumphed.

Have a good night, and stay safe,
Julia

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