Anyone in Florida

[Simon Dog]

I hope anyone on this list in Florida has been able to make dialysis arrangements for the coming cluster---k of a storm.   If anyone on this forum is in the effected area, it would be interesting to see what their center was able to do for them.

[Fabkiwi06]

I was thinking about that the other night... Winter is coming, and with cold and ice a few months away I was looking at my own set up and trying to figure out worst case situations...

Hope anyone on the coast is in a safe place to ride out the storm! Sending lots of good thoughts to y'all.

[kristina]

i very much hope the people in Florida have found good shelter and are in a safe place and I keep my fingers crossed for their continued safety!
Best wishes and good luck from Kristina.l

[kickingandscreaming]

Same here.

[LorinnPKD]

Wishing for safety and good care for all of our IHD'ers along the coast...

[smartcookie]

I am not in Florida, but north eastern South Carolina, a couple hours from the coast.  My clinic usually runs two shifts of MWF patients and TTS patient.  Today, we are running all of our patients on three hour shifts so everyone gets some dialysis ahead of Hurricane Matthew.  We will be closed tomorrow.  We have a couple open slots, so we are running some evacuated Charleston and Beaufort patients, too.  If we have the need, we might open Sunday and run more evacuated patients.  Clinics in Atlanta are getting a lot of evacuated patients, some with no orders or labs.  They are running them on the end of the loop for three hours and bleaching everything after each run.  We might have to run evacuated patients for a couple weeks, depending on damages.  We hand out emergency preparedness packages at the beginning of hurricane season.  We handed out emergency packets again this week, complete with emergency phone numbers and lists of shelters for patients.  The storm should be here overnight and into Saturday, but we shouldn't get too much damage where I am at.  Praying for safety for everyone with this awful storm!!!   

[iolaire]

I am not in Florida, but north eastern South Carolina, a couple hours from the coast.  My clinic usually runs two shifts of MWF patients and TTS patient.  Today, we are running all of our patients on three hour shifts so everyone gets some dialysis ahead of Hurricane Matthew.  We will be closed tomorrow.  We have a couple open slots, so we are running some evacuated Charleston and Beaufort patients, too.  If we have the need, we might open Sunday and run more evacuated patients.  Clinics in Atlanta are getting a lot of evacuated patients, some with no orders or labs.  They are running them on the end of the loop for three hours and bleaching everything after each run.  We might have to run evacuated patients for a couple weeks, depending on damages.  We hand out emergency preparedness packages at the beginning of hurricane season.  We handed out emergency packets again this week, complete with emergency phone numbers and lists of shelters for patients.  The storm should be here overnight and into Saturday, but we shouldn't get too much damage where I am at.  Praying for safety for everyone with this awful storm!!!   

Good luck.  Thanks for the update.

In this situation its good that our medical industrial complex has motivation to build lots of dialysis centers because it means there is space for evacuees.   Not all countries have so much excess capacity. 

And thanks to the centers and workers for putting in the extra time to deal with the increased load.

[smartcookie]

Good thing is, not one staff member has complained.  We started putting patients on at 5 this morning and will not be done till about 8 pm.  I really like my little clinic and am very proud of it!

[Simon Dog]

  Clinics in Atlanta are getting a lot of evacuated patients, some with no orders or labs. 

It is worthwhile having your MD set up online access so you can always print your most recent labs.

It's also useful to know all your settings (NA, Bicarb, bath, flow rates), heparin dose if any, etc. in case you have to communicated this in an emergency.

[iolaire]

It's also useful to know all your settings (NA, Bicarb, bath, flow rates), heparin dose if any, etc. in case you have to communicated this in an emergency.

My center provides these as part of the bad weather package.  I'd guess evacuees have them sitting at home.  For some people I doubt that documentation is high at the top of people's list of valuables.

[Rerun]

Good luck People on the East Coast.

       

[Riki]

In this situation its good that our medical industrial complex has motivation to build lots of dialysis centers because it means there is space for evacuees.   Not all countries have so much excess capacity. 

You mean, like mine? *L*  My province has 4 centres, and they are all at capacity.. the one that I go to is the largest, and they recently started an evening shift on MWF to free up space.. we are having such a hard time accommodating our own patients, and finding room for the predialysis patients who need to begin, that if we had to take on patients from another province because of an emergency, it would be incredibly hard to find the space for them..

[Simon Dog]

My province has 4 centres, and they are all at capacity.. the one that I go to is the largest, and they recently started an evening shift on MWF to free up space..

The fact that the center was able to add a shift means it was not at capacity.   Centers tend to start an evening shift on MWF before they add a TTS evening shift so, if this is the case, there is still some unused capacity.   (of course, it may need more RNs and techs)

[Riki]

Yes.. they had to add and train more staff before they could offer the evening shifts.. and they only take 5-6 patients on that shift, when on the others they can take up to 16.. so to expand that shift to it's capacity, they still need more staff..

[Michael Murphy]

Remember that some of the refugees will be nurses and techs from the effected area.  Using them it would be easier to add additional shifts. 

[Simon Dog]

Remember that some of the refugees will be nurses and techs from the effected area.  Using them it would be easier to add additional shifts.

Except that you run into licensing issues once the refugee tech/RN crosses state lines.

[Fabkiwi06]

The logistics of all of this are fascinating. I'm heading in to my first real "bad weather" season on Dialysis and it's making me look around and consider a lot more. In some ways I feel like I have it easier on PD, but in others I don't. If I get stuck in the house, I'm good. Having to evacuate for some reason would be challenging.

[iolaire]

My province has 4 centres, and they are all at capacity.. the one that I go to is the largest, and they recently started an evening shift on MWF to free up space..

The fact that the center was able to add a shift means it was not at capacity.   Centers tend to start an evening shift on MWF before they add a TTS evening shift so, if this is the case, there is still some unused capacity.   (of course, it may need more RNs and techs)

I was more thinking of Ireland where access seemed even more limited.  But in Montreal (at a hospital) I learned that all the help are nurses and they look at the trend to use tech's in the US with interest.  It sounded like the nurse who helped me with didn't think only using nurses was sustainable.

Re: emergencies and bad weather, last winter I skipped a Friday session because it had just started snowing and my wife didn't want me to drive to the center, but then on Monday after all the snow hit our parking lot was un plowed and I had to beg a ride from an neighbor.  It made me realize that I need to go out as it gets bad because it will be even harder to get to the center after it has been bad...