Hospitals and other healthcare facilities on Florida’s Gulf Coast — still reeling from Hurricane Helene — are now preparing for Hurricane Milton.
The system, which is one of the strongest to hit the region in years, is expected to make landfall just south of the Tampa area late Wednesday. Long-term care facilities in counties where mandatory evacuations have been issued are taking their patients elsewhere, while hospitals are largely on alert and preparing to stay open during the storm.
Ten hospitals have reported evacuations as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ website. Three hundred health care facilities were evacuated this morning, most of the staff who worked there were recalled, said Kim Smoak, deputy secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. That count included 63 nursing homes and 169 residential care centers.
Steve McCoy, chief of the Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Oversight, said it was the state’s “largest evacuation ever.”
Health officials are using nearly 600 vehicles to move patients out of the storm’s path, tracking them with blue wristbands that show where they were evacuated from and where they are being sent. They plan to take patients out all night long, until winds reach a sustained speed of 60 km/h and driving conditions become unsafe.
“I’ve lived on the Gulf Coast all my life and in Sarasota for 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. “Our concerns are great, but we are as prepared as we can be.”
Tampa General Hospital has stocked up on more than five days’ worth of supplies, including food, linens and 5,000 gallons of water, in addition to an on-site well. In the event of a power outage, the hospital also has a power plant with generators and boilers located 10 meters above sea level.
Tampa General deployed an “aqua fence” to successfully prevent flooding during Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. The barrier will rise again when Milton makes landfall and can withstand a storm surge of 15 feet. The U.S. National Hurricane Center estimates that Milton’s waves will be 10 to 15 feet high at their peak.
No one will be working on the first floor of Tampa General Hospital for the foreseeable future — just in case.
“While AquaFence has proven effective in the past, it is only the first line of defense and one of many mitigation efforts we have implemented this week to safely continue caring for our patients,” said Jennifer Crabtree, chief of staff at Tampa General .
Tampa’s health care system has closed many urgent care and imaging locations, but its four hospital campuses are prepared to remain open during the storm.
HCA Florida Healthcare, one of the state’s largest health care networks, has evacuated patients from five hospitals to sister facilities. The closed HCA Florida hospitals are Pasadena Hospital in St. Petersburg, Largo West Hospital in Largo, Florida Englewood Hospital in Englewood, West Tampa Hospital in Tampa and Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte, where high winds and flooding caused extensive damage during 2022 hurricane Ian .
AdventHealth North Pinellas evacuated its 40 patients Tuesday afternoon and transferred them to nearby hospitals in their health care system. The hospital’s emergency department remains open. Randy Haffner, CEO and president of AdventHealth Florida, said in an emailed statement that the system is “as prepared as we can be with water, generators, sandbags, satellite phones and the best health care providers available.”
Hospitals are closing in the area, but Sarasota Memorial Health Care System also plans to stay open during the storm and provide shelter, Verinder said. Still, “we are concerned about the many unknowns,” he said.
Verinder estimates that the system, which includes enough food, water, bedding and medicine for at least seven days and 200,000 liters of fuel, is expected to shelter and support more than 4,000 people during the hurricane, although it is already near capacity.
More than 2,500 staff members are preparing for several nights at the hospital starting Tuesday, so Sarasota Memorial will offer child care and animal shelters on both campuses.
“We are not a designated medical shelter, but we are working with the province to care for medically dependent persons assigned to the hospital due to the acuity of their needs … and patients evacuated from other hospitals in the region,” he said .
Dr. Matt Shannon, director of emergency medicine at University of Florida Health, said the state’s flagship facility is prepared to accept patients.
“The emergency department… we never close,” he said. “We have five emergency departments, all of which are open and functioning. This isn’t our first rodeo – we’ve been through this before.”
Repeated severe hurricane seasons have hardened Florida facilities and prepared them for Milton, said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association. Still, Hurricane Milton’s sheer force and the cascading nature of the storms will impact “much of the state and its hospitals.”
“It increases vulnerabilities in the area, from flooding to blocked drains and debris that has not been removed and which could worsen a situation already predicted to be catastrophic,” Mayhew said. “Public hospitals routinely prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
In a briefing Tuesday, government officials and representatives of the long-term care industry urged nursing homes and assisted living facilities to prepare for extended power outages, damage to sewers and inability to access electronic medical records.
“We want to remind you that all emergencies are local,” said Emmett Reed, CEO of the Florida Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted living providers in the state. “You should start with your local emergency management office to report any questions you may have.”
Florida’s west coast, which includes Pinellas, Manatee and Hillsborough counties, has the highest concentration of nursing centers in the state, said Kristen Knapp, spokesperson for the Florida Health Care Association.
“Based on what’s been reported, you’re talking at least 5,000 to 6,000 nursing home residents who have been evacuated,” Knapp said in an email.
In provinces under a state of emergency, nursing homes and assisted living facilities must have enough emergency generator fuel to power life-saving equipment and maintain indoor temperatures at safe levels for 96 hours.
Deborah Franklin, a member of the Florida Health Care Association’s emergency response team, said centers should print resident documents, including medications, dietary restrictions and more, even if they are not in the worst part of the hurricane. She also urged staff to consider the mental health of their residents, some of whom are moving for the second time in just a few weeks.
“You have to address — after the storm or even during the storm — trauma-informed care for these residents,” Franklin said. “They might worry about their families. They might worry about whether they’ll have a home to go back to.”
Sixty-seven-year-old Lillie Whiting said she has no plans to evacuate the assisted living facility where she lives a few blocks from the bay in Clearwater. But she may have to pack anyway when Magnolia Manor staff decides the residents need to be transferred to another facility across town.
“We may have to evacuate, but they doubt it and say we’ll see what happens,” Whiting said. “If we do that, they’ll have another place we can go.”
The retired housekeeper took advantage of the clear weather on Tuesday afternoon to get some fresh air, supported by the walker she uses to get around. She’s growing more nervous as Hurricane Milton heads toward the Gulf Coast, but she said she’s confident the facility will take care of her and the other residents.
“A little scared,” she said. “But I pray all the time.”
Shannon with UF Health said most people with lung problems who rely on oxygen at home have spare oxygen bottles ready, and some new devices even have spare batteries.
But he is concerned about the elderly and people living in rural areas.
“We see them in the emergency room when the backup fails or they don’t have access to a generator,” Shannon said.
Dialysis facilities across the state are trying to provide even shortened treatments to as many patients as possible before closing due to the storm.
“Helene, they were able to get back up and running quite quickly. But with the wind, this could be a different kind of event,” said Helen Rose of the Health Services Advisory Group, which is helping coordinate emergency response for kidney patients. The network has set up a telephone helpline and will maintain an updated list of open facilities during and after the storm.
