MUSC employees step up to relocate babies before the storm

During Hurricane Hugo things were particularly precarious in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care units. The sheer force of the rain and 140 mph winds were so intense it caused some windows to leak and others to blow in completely or shatter. While medical staff quickly moved babies and children to safety early on, no one wanted a repeat of that event during Hurricane Matthew.

The Monday before the storm hit, leadership earnestly began campuswide preparations. While experts predicted that the storm could possibly brush the Charleston area sometime between late Friday and Saturday, leaders weren’t waiting for Matthew to make up his mind whether or not he would make landfall in South Carolina or instead head inland.

As Children’s Hospital leaders considered options to keep the tiny patients safe during the unpredictable weather, they took definitive action ahead of the storm, said Robin Mutz, RN, administrator of Women’s Health and executive nursing director of the Children’s Hospital.

“We decided that the most prudent thing to do would be to relocate the entire NICU, which on Wednesday, when we physically moved them, had a total of 31 babies. The PICU only had seven children at that time, but we knew we could move them easily, if necessary.”

“However,” Mutz added, “there was no way to safely move 31 babies at the last moment.”

“Everyone, from top to bottom offered to help us,” Mutz said with praise. “We boarded up all the windows, secured the area and began to execute what we considered a well–constructed plan.”

They set up a command post and deployed two teams — team orange and team purple — to move the infants to a location where they would be safe from the storm. They also evacuated 11 babies, who were nearing discharge, to the Midlands and Upstate by air transport.

It wasn’t just the little patients who needed to be moved; they also had to move the unit’s Acudose–Rx and Pyxis cabinets, very large electronic units that contained the patients’ medications, medical supplies and items that supported their care.

The entire move took 4 ½ hours to safely relocate all the babies from the two NICUs on the eighth floor to the Level II nursery, the pediatric procedural area and Interventional Radiology on the fifth floor.

Both teams included a respiratory therapist, pharmacist, nurse, nurse practitioner and a physician. A representative from the Informatics Department was also on hand to ensure patient records, orders and notes for each child went to the right location and were properly accessible.

“With every baby, the team would determine and announce if a particular move was a ‘go’ or ‘no go,’” Mutz said. “The receiving team would say, ‘We are ready for baby one and call the baby’s name.’ Team orange would then roll. We would get a radio communication from them that said, ‘The baby has arrived, send the next baby,’ then team purple would roll. We did that over and over and over again.”

Both the orange and purple teams transported the babies to a receiving team comprised of NICU and PICU nurses, a respiratory therapist and a physician, who oversaw the move. Some babies were bagged while being transported, which provided oxygen to the babies through a special resuscitation bag that was connected to a mask over their mouths or to a tube in the trachea and lungs. “This added an extra degree of complexity to the move, particularly considering some of the babies were only about two pounds,” Mutz explained.

Mutz couldn’t speak highly enough of how well–orchestrated the plan was. “The two teams were amazing — in fact, everyone was. Security held the elevators for us and cleared the path. Facilities provided us with radios and support and cleared every barrier. Environmental Services covered both ends of the move, ensuring the rooms were safe and ready upon arrival and return.

“Any time we needed anything, they came immediately. Unit secretaries moved supplies. Pharmacists moved Acudose machines. Everyone did what needed to be done, wearing multiple hats at any one moment. Everyone was involved, committed and demonstrated the true spirit of being part of a team,” added Mutz, proudly.

Julie Ross, M.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and medical director of the Neonatal Nurseries, served as the incident commander, and Mutz assisted her.

On Monday, days after the storm had moved east into the Atlantic, the teams re–transported 33 babies, including two who were born during the storm, back to the NICU — this time in four hours and 10 minutes. “The babies did well in both directions,” reported Ross, adding that it was truly a remarkable feat. 

“It was flawless, like watching a symphony in slow motion,” Ross said. “Everyone was focused. They knew what they were supposed to do and why they were doing it. I’ve never seen a team so committed to the safety of our children. I’m incredibly proud to be part of a team that exhibited such exceptional teamwork and collaboration to successfully move over 30 of our most critically–ill infants without a single incident.”