Outpatient pharmacy steps in when community pharmacies shut down.

Abstract

As Hurricane Irma approached central Florida on September 10, word spread that Florida Hospital Orlando had a pharmacy that was still open and serving the community, said hospital pharmacy director Heath R. Jennings. “The minute the patients got wind of that, they were lined up around the block,” he said. A year earlier, that would not have been the situation. When Hurricane Matthew passed along Florida’s eastern coastline in October 2016, the emergency staffing plan for the 1,393-bed medical center did not include the outpatient pharmacy. “We found out very quickly that we had a difficult time discharging patients” into a community with an upcoming or just-expired curfew, Jennings said. The medical center also found out quickly that people in general had difficulty finding places in the community to obtain medications immediately before or after a curfew, he said. Because of that, the medical center added its medical office building pharmacy and hospital lobby-level outpatient pharmacy to the hurricane plan. “They’re all on generator power, and they would be considered safe haven places for employees,” Jennings said.