Dozens of workers stay overnight at Boone County hospitals

Officials have to balance keeping the north tower at Boone Hospital Center quiet and a hub of critical activity.

More than 30 employees stayed at the hospital off East Broadway Friday afternoon for their shifts that night or Saturday morning. Hospital President Jim Sinek offered them “pay to stay,” since they were considered critical parts of their emergency operations.

Both Boone Hospital Center and University Hospital managers prepared for icy weather throughout the weekend. Both closed outpatient services and clinics Friday. Sinek said the “weather emergency” means the hospital put together its incident command staff, made up of several hospital division employees. The group takes “shifts” stationed in the north tower, an “overflow” area of the hospital, to manage resources and let staff sleep in the empty rooms.

“That team’s meeting just to do another assessment of where we’re at right now, how’s the staffing, how’s the supplies, all those things we review, and if we need to make any adjustments, we do it then,” Sinek told ABC 17 News Friday.

The hospital has 12 tons of ice melt on hand to deal with ice that builds on roads and sidewalks. The maintenance manager said they usually use four tons a day during ice storms, and offer yellow buckets filled with ice melt around campus for people to use themselves on slick spots.

Ambulances are stationed at six spots in the county, Sinek said. While they have not applied traction controls like tire chains yet, the hospital could put them on later if needed.

“That may be a possibility, if it gets to a point where we’re not able to drive safely, but right now, we’re just being cautious,” Sinek said.

Some of University Hospital’s ambulances can deploy chains to knock off ice from the tires, emergency manager Rob Loseman said. Around a dozen employees stayed at the hospital ahead of their shifts Friday, offered cots and rooms in the main building.

University Hospital uses a web program to help manage resources during storms. Employees can check the program, either on a desktop or phone, to see what different divisions need.

“If we had the need to look for something, let’s say we need a stretcher or we need to find an item, we can post that out there and we can see it in real time and respond,” Loseman said.

Both hospitals rely on backup generators in the case of a widespread power outage. Sinek said Boone Hospital keeps three diesel-powered generators with 20,000 gallons of fuel in underground tanks. Loseman said his hospital could pull from the university’s electric system to get power back, as well as several backup generators.