The team at Tidelands Health has hurricane prep down to a science.
With an eye on slow-moving Hurricane Dorian on Tuesday, Tidelands Health employee partners calmly ordered extra supplies, prepared for essential medical providers to shelter in place and organized schedules so Tidelands Health hospitals can continue to provide needed medical services to the community throughout Hurricane Dorian – whatever the storm may bring.
“We’d rather be prepared than not,” Steven Cabral, a distribution technician, says while moving supplies on the loading dock at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital.

While the halls in the hospital – which has been discharging patients and rescheduling procedures to reduce the number of patients in advance of the storm – were much quieter than a usual weekday, the back hallways remain abuzz with team members making preparations.
Stacks of cots in a back hallway are ready, if needed, for team members who will shelter in place. Food service workers gathered in a quick meeting to go over schedules for the next few days – taking into account the possibility of flooding and high winds.

Carol Ward, an inventory technician, had ordered and was overseeing the mounds of supplies coming in – she’s wrangled needed items for departments for 25 years.
Like Ward, many team members are veterans at hurricane preparations – they’ve been through this for decades.
“We are not new to this,” says Bruce Pattillo, director of the emergency department at Tidelands Waccamaw, who has worked during hurricanes for 26 years. “We prepare and prepare well.”
On 3 East early Tuesday, nurses tried on their Tidelands Health “hurricane responder” squall jackets – which were issued to all team members recently.
“I just put my jacket on, so I’m ready,” registered nurse Tiffany Waddell said.