On Saturday morning we were discharging everyone possible; my unit’s census dropped 50% by noon. By Saturday afternoon there was a team going around making up evacuation packets for each patient remaining: copies of the chart, facesheets, patient worksheets, updated contact info (to add cell phones), armbands with said contact info, etc. All that was left was to include copies of the latest orders/progress notes/lab and imaging results, current medication administration sheets, and a bag with enough meds for 24 hours. Saturday night we were told we wouldn’t be going anywhere. In fact, we’d probably be taking on patients from other hospitals.

Sunday was quiet. We had five nurses with three patients each. A few discharges that were soon replaced with ICU transfers and ER admissions. Supervisors came by regularly. There were no immediate plans to evacuate. Nope. Still nothing. Then…BOOM! Or, rather…. RING! Our charge nurse got a call just after 5pm to inform us that there were 60 previously unavailable ambulances out front waiting to be filled. Go!

Oh, and someone was coming up right now for one of my patients. It was insane. I’d never seen our unit trashed so quickly. Papers were flying everywhere. Lines formed after our unit’s one copier and the two Pyxis medstations we shared with another unit. All the phones were being used to call patient’s families to let them know of the transfers. People were called to come in early to help with the evacuation. By the time I left, I only had one patient remaining. (The first one gone was that first transfer. The other I was able to get discharge orders from his surgeon.)

This morning I arrived prepared to stay a few days if necessary (in case of severe flooding around the building and parking garage). The hospital was dark and silent. The only floors operating were ICU with 10 patients and mine with 4. The ER was open but empty.  Surgery had a possible 3 cases. I spent the first part of my day preparing my one patient for surgery, but then the MD decided to wait another day and another set of imaging since the GI issue appeared to be slowly resolving.

It was a long day.  And, thankfully, Gustav was a no-show.