UMH was “Organized Chaos” that Tuesday afternoon according to CEO Nordwick
Hospital CEO Nordwick Credits STRAC System for Communication and help after Robb School incident.(STRAC :The Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council)
In the Uvalde Memorial Hospital board meeting held earlier this evening, the hospital’s CEO, Tom Nordwick described that afternoon as injured patients started arriving from Robb School as, “Organized Chaos.”
According to Nordwick, the Uvalde Memorial Hospital’s membership with STRAC. The STRAC system of communication, according to Nordwick, facilitated the streamlining of the hospital’s staff communications. Additionally, nurses from STRAC came to UMH to relieve the nursing staff and assist them.
According to Nordwick, Hospital staff cell numbers and email addresses are organized by the STRAC system enabling mass messages to be sent out to staff and groups.
“We are on standby getting everything ready just watching the staff getting everything ready, “said Nordwick regarding the time just before the first patients started arriving.
“Law enforcement showed up as well helping with crowd control… We had clergy come in from outside.” Norwick said.
“ I had nurses relieving our nurses. They are top-notch.” Adam Apolnar, UMH Chief Operating Officer said.
According to Apolnar, That day, we had 8 helicopters in line and plenty of ambulances. The staff was extremely compassionate and professional.
“We started seeing our first patients at 2 o’clock. And by 5:30 we were able to close our incident command center.” Nordwick said
“We saw 15 patients. 11 of them were children. They were transferred the children. 3 of them went to the University Health System, one went to Methodist Children’s Hospital and then we transferred one adult to BAMC (Brooke Army Medical Center) The 10 remaining, they were able to thoroughly check them out and determine there were no issues that required their continued stay in the hospital. We discharged all the patients that day.” We did have two DOA patients, (Dead On Arrival). And it took a while for us to identify the parents.” said Nordwick
“Law enforcement showed up as well helping with crowd control,.. We had clergy come in from outside.” Norwick said.
“The outpouring of support from area nursing homes and other hospitals was amazing.” Nordwick said. He went on to say the press was amazing.
Apolnar then spoke about the UMH medical staff working on Irma Garcia’s husband Joe Garcia Thursday May 28th, who suffered and later died of a heart attack that day.
“We worked on the heart attack guy for quite some time. We were getting what was needed to bring him back. That night was difficult,” Apolnar said.
UMH Board Member Kelly Faglie, described what she saw the afternoon of the school shooting incident Tuesday afternoon at the hospital. “It was certainly something that was not expected but I felt like everybody did a great job. They got where they needed to be, The only thing was the parking.That was the hard Part. I think those that need to get and need critical care. Everybody just kinda stepped up and did what they needed to do.” Faglie went on to say she was very proud of everyone.
According the the STRAC website: “STRAC or The Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) is designated by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to develop, implement and maintain the regional trauma and emergency healthcare system for the 22 counties in Trauma Service Area – P (TSA-P).”
Under the Heading: Regional Trauma System on the organization’s website it reads, “STRAC is responsible to develop, implement, and maintain the regional trauma and emergency healthcare system plan for TSA-P. Through collaboration and consensus-driven practices, STRAC and its members determine methods for, and requirements governing, efficient and expedient inter-facility transfers most appropriate for the patient’s needs for trauma care and/or rehabilitative services. This organized approach to facilitating and coordinating a multidisciplinary response to severely injured patients is the focus of Injury Prevention Committee, Trauma Coordinators Committee, and System Process Improvement Committees.”
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