Kansas City Star: How Kansas City's hospitals stayed open in the blizzard

By Jonathan Shorman and Cayli Yanagida

Doctors and nurses need to eat – even in blizzards. 

After an ambulance transported a patient to AdventHealth Shawnee Mission on Sunday night, the crew discovered an empty snack room. Day shift nurses, who had stayed over because others couldn’t travel in, apologized, explaining they didn’t have any food. 

“When the ambulance got back to our station, they talked to all my crew and they were like ‘well, that’s not OK. There are no restaurants open anywhere,’” Overland Park Fire Department Capt. Stan McDonald said.

The firefighters of Station 41, just east of the hospital on 75th Street, “raided their own pantry” – as the fire department put it – to whip up a pancake breakfast with eggs and fruit for the emergency room staff. 

Across the Kansas City metro, the critical institutions that keep the area running – hospitals, law enforcement agencies, fire departments and others – have literally weathered a storm that shut down schools, businesses and some government offices. Even a day after the snow stopped falling, temperatures remain well below freezing and road conditions remain spotty in some areas. 

But these vital services can’t shut down. So how do they adapt when it’s dangerous for their employees to commute?

Multiple hospitals in Kansas City put extensive plans in place last week as it became clear the winter storm wouldn’t be typical. The University of Kansas Health System, Saint Luke’s and Children’s Mercy cleared the way for employees to stay overnight in an effort to avoid treacherous travel. Collectively, hundreds if not thousands of employees across the institutions effectively slept at work.

In a statement, Children’s Mercy said it provided staff lodging, with 165 individuals reserving space. The hospital called that a “record number for team members staying onsite during a severe weather event.”

Read the full article via The Kansas City Star