SIKESTON -- Keeping a hospital running during or following a severe winter weather event takes planning -- and good people.
"You learn to be proactive -- you can't wait till 7 a.m. and find out nurses didn't show up," said Dicky Chance, director of medical/surgical nursing at Missouri Delta Medical Center. "It takes planning in advance. We go around and see who is scheduled to come in and where they live and make arrangements for people who work in town or work close to town to be available, let them know we will call if we need them."
"Our priority is patient care: making sure they are fed and taken care of," said Joy Cauthorn, MDMC's disaster planning coordinator and infection control nurse. "We have emergency policies in place so that when we have a reduction of staff that can make it to work, we can still provide the same quality of care."
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