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.”

 

 The Uvalde Memorial Hospital Board met on Monday night, convening at about  6 PM, April 11th for a called meeting and approved the asset purchase agreed upon by Dr. Jones of Clear Springs Cancer Center. Additionally, the board approved additional asbestos removal from the old hospital building in the amount of $36,000. The board met for over four hours with over three hours spent in a closed executive session. 

  According to UMH Tom Nordwick, additional asbestos was done on the 25th of March and more asbestos was found by the use of test holes in the exterior brickwork of the old hospital building.

  Asbestos was identified in the waterproofing under the brickwork. The additional $36,000 approval would be used to gather and dispose of the asbestos properly. Since the City of Uvalde landfill does not accept asbestos materials, the materials would likely have to be hauled to a landfill in San Antonio.

  Following the meeting, UMH board member Ben Elliott commented on the issue of the grounds where the old hospital facility currently exists.

 He stated “Future plans have been discussed at length, even while we were planning the new hospital, to best utilize the roughly 200 acres UMH has been entrusted with.  We envision a ‘medical campus’ in our Master Plan to include new services and facilities down the road as opportunity and the need arise.”

   “Many may not like the plans for a new and expanded parking lot where our beloved old hospital currently sits, but we envision a park-like atmosphere so patients, family, and employees alike can get out and enjoy the greenery and foliage, in addition to having sufficient parking spaces for all who come to the new facility.” He said.

“Truly, I realize the sentimental/emotional attachment to the old hospital.  Heck, my little brother and I were born there!  So, that’s not lost on me.  But, many problems and deficiencies exist throughout the facility and it’s cost prohibitive for UMH, or anyone else, as we have to work within the current standards for medical care, which are constantly changing and must be adhered to in order for us to operate.  We all hate to see it go, but as Dr. Watkins so honestly stated at the grand opening after his history lesson of our community hospital, ‘The only thing that’s constant, is change’.” Elliott said.

 At last Thursday’s April 7th Rotary Club of Uvalde meeting at the Uvalde Country Club, Uvalde Memorial Hospital CEO Tom Norwick responded to a full page, full color ad placed in the previous Sunday’s issue of the Uvalde Leader-News paid for by Richard Williams and Don McLaughlin Jr.

  The title of the ad read, “SAVE THIS BUILDING” which referred to the old Uvalde Memorial Hospital buildings the new UMH Hospital Building replaced. The ad also included pictures of the UMH board members with their respective names and phone numbers. 

Norwick stated the hospital board carefully considered the fate of the old hospital building. 

He began his remarks  by saying, 

 “You would have had asbestos removal. There was just a litany of things. We moved the chiller, the cooling towers to the new building and the emergency power plant.   The cost to utilize that for a healthcare facility, again, would be extensive. I don’t know a hundred people that would be wanting to rent a bunch of offices to move into that or how you would pay a half a million dollars in utilities to maintain that building.” Nordwick said. 

  “It wasn’t on a whim we said, ‘Hey, new is better than old, let’s knock it down.’ and didn’t think about alternative uses; we did. We just couldn’t come up with a viable option to where it just wouldn’t be an anchor around our neck and from a perspective of having to maintain an old building that really couldn’t be used to its fullest. The newest part of the building (referring to the old hospital building) is 50 years old. We had a good chunk of it that was built in 1949.  I know there are some people think, ‘Well, There’s got to be a way to save it and we’ve got to make use of monies.’” Norwick said.

 “Yes, we received some sales tax funding. But I can tell you that’s amounted to about a million dollars a year. We probably do 15 million dollars in charity care every year. That doesn’t even begin to cover our costs. So yes, we’re appreciative of those tax dollars; don’t get me wrong.”

He went on to say,   “This board of directors has not mismanaged the operations of this facility. They’ve done an excellent job.” 

“We went out and borrowed money to get this thing off the ground. I’ve not announced this publicly before, but we actually made the decision not to take the loan: We paid that building off.”

 Norwick concluded by saying:  “This is not an organization that has put a huge tax burden on this community.”