With Hurricane Milton now having passed through Florida and out to the Atlantic, reports are trickling in on the damages healthcare providers weathered from winds and flooding.
As of 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) said it was aware of 165 healthcare facilities with power outages across the state. These included three hospitals, 17 freestanding hospital emergency departments, 70 assisted living facilities and 59 residential treatment facilities.
Prior to Wednesday night’s landfall and shortly after, 401 total healthcare facilities reported evacuations, AHCA said. Among these were 21 hospitals, eight freestanding hospital emergency departments, 223 assisted living facilities and 76 nursing homes.
As of midday Thursday, state officials said there were eight confirmed deaths—likely to rise as other reports are confirmed—and that almost 3.5 million residents had lost power.
“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a Thursday morning press conference. “The storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario.”
"Florida hospitals that were in Hurricane Milton's path fared relatively well, with very few reports of major damage so far," said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association. "Our hospitals have been tested by many significant storms over the past few years and the benefit of this experience is that every test allows them to reexamine and enhance storm preparedness efforts, keeping patient and workforce safety as the primary focus. With Milton, we saw the success of many of those efforts and investments."
Officials and healthcare groups had said earlier this week they were worried that the lingering debris and damage from September's Hurricane Helene could compound Milton's damage.
Also of concern was the national medical supply chain after Helene had disrupted operations at Baxter International's North Carolina plant, which produces a majority of the country's IV fluids. The second-leading producer, B. Braun Medical, has a plant in Daytona Beach that was closed Wednesday and emptied of its stockpile.
A representative of the manufacturer told The New York Times Thursday afternoon that the plant has emerged intact and will reopen Friday.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued blanket waivers and flexibilities effective through the public health emergency declaration that went into effect Oct. 8.
Among these, for hospitals, are flexibilities related to emergency care screening, patient surge capacity, length of stay, privacy, telemedicine and long-term care services being delivered by hospitals.
Other waivers and flexibilities are also available for end-stage renal dialysis facilities, home health agencies, hospices, skilled-nursing facilities and pharmacies.
Healthcare groups have previously told Fierce Healthcare that, due to the privatization of Medicare and Medicaid in Florida, similar flexibilities from commercial insurers on requirements like prior authorization will be crucial.
State officials, industry groups and individual health systems say they are collaborating with others to facilitate transfers or other support where necessary.
HCA Florida Healthcare, the 48-hospital subsidiary system of for-profit giant HCA Healthcare, had transferred about 400 patients to sister facilities and closed five hospitals prior to the storm. One of those, HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital, has been reopened while the system is “working diligently” to follow suit with the others, it said Thursday.
However, one hospital that had remained open during the storm, HCA Florida Largo Hospital, sustained flooding in its basement that “affected power to some parts of the hospital,” the company said. The system is transferring the hospital’s roughly 235 patients and has already moved its most critical patients, it said.
“Our hospitals are preparing to receive patients from non-HCA Florida Healthcare hospitals as needed, as well as patients we may receive from long term care and assisted living facilities,” HCA Florida Healthcare said in a statement. “In addition, our ERs are expecting to receive an influx of patients with typical post-storm and recovery illnesses and injuries, such as cuts, broken bones and cardiac events.”
Tampa General Hospital said its “storm mitigation efforts stood strong” against the storm and that its hospitals are open to care for patients. Its freestanding emergency centers in the most affected counties are slated to reopen Thursday evening.
Further from Florida’s Gulf Coast, Orlando Health said all hospitals and freestanding EDs were open and that those in central and eastern Florida had seen an uptick in ER visits through the early morning “including an accidental electrocution and injuries sustained from a motor vehicle accident.”
The emergencies coincided with a jump in babies being delivered, it added, as its care teams at two hospitals “are celebrating the births of more than 46 babies” born between 7:00 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
“Babies are going to come when they’re ready,” Suzanne Worthington, president of Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies, said in a statement. “Our job—whether it’s before, during or after a hurricane—is to help make the experience positive for the family, especially mother and baby.”
Other Florida health systems have posted updates on their websites outlining when facilities will be reopened and encouraging those with non-life-threatening concerns to consider telehealth appointments to limit strain on EDs.
"There was a tremendous amount of collaboration between hospitals to share resources and engage in patient transfers, and that collaboration continues as we move into the response and recovery phase," Mayhew said. "...Florida is incredibly resilient, and I am beyond grateful to the hospital staff who worked tirelessly to keep our hospitals open and keep patients safe."