Emergency preparation
and response
HCA Healthcare stands ready to care for patients and colleagues through a variety of emergency scenarios. Our Enterprise Emergency Operations Center (EEOC) is comprised of leaders from 30 enterprise functional areas with expertise in clinical care, logistics and supply chain, risk management, transportation and local communities who are supported by cutting-edge technology and knowledge of the entire HCA Healthcare enterprise.
Preparation efforts begin long before an event occurs. For example, in May 2023, our hospital, division and corporate leaders met to review HCA Healthcare’s 2023 Hurricane Playbook and discuss the season’s weather outlook. When the EEOC does identify a potential severe weather event, our organization begins to provide impacted hospitals with additional resources to help them continue providing care.
Responding to Hurricane Idalia
On Aug. 24, 2023, the EEOC received alerts from our contracted partner StormGeo about a possible storm to impact the Florida Peninsula. After an initial enterprise briefing call the following day, the EEOC and Division Emergency Operations Centers (DEOC) for our West Florida, South Atlantic and North Florida divisions were activated and our Incident Support Team was deployed. The Incident Support Team is comprised of clinicians, leaders and executives from across our enterprise who are cross-trained as incident response personnel.
As our teams prepared for what would eventually become Hurricane Idalia, 75 patients were transferred over two days to facilities outside of the expected impact zone and HCA Healthcare’s new Tiger Dam Flood Barrier was set up at HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital in St. Petersburg. This barrier was deployed to protect vulnerable areas of the facility, including the emergency room and electrical infrastructure. The emergency room reopened less than 10 hours after Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Aug. 30 as a Category 3 storm. Two colleague support centers were also established at HCA Florida Lake City Hospital and Memorial Satilla Health in Georgia to provide personal items, cleaning supplies, food and ice for colleagues, and the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund provided 43 grants totaling more than $101,000 to impacted colleagues and their families. Learn more about the Hope Fund.
EEOC support during Hurricane Idalia
18K+
gallons of
diesel fuel
16
trailer-mounted electrical generators
1.2K+
staff hours of deployed
Incident Support Teams
2K+
hours of support provided by 64 additional security officers sent to 26 facilities