Kevin DiLallo’s Lessons from Irma: Take time to thank our community

As said by Winston Churchill, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

On Sept. 8, 2017, Manatee County issued a mandatory evacuation for Zone A. That zone includes Manatee Memorial Hospital and its surrounding Medical Office buildings.

The recommendation of the county’s Emergency Operations Center prompted the immediate implementation of the hospital’s emergency disaster plan and initiated an evacuation of all its patients and employees; that evacuation was accomplished in 24 hours.

At the time the decision was made to evacuate Manatee Memorial, we had 202 patients in the hospital.

An amazing display of teamwork and coordination had to take place between Florida State Emergency Command Center in Tallahassee, Manatee County Emergency Command Center, local Emergency Medical Servies, local health department, several strike force teams throughout the state and nation and the great team of professionals at Manatee Memorial and Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. Strike teams assembled from as far away as Illinois and Arizona.

Our patients were all evacuated and readmitted back to Manatee Memorial within 72 hours — an amazing display of coordination and teamwork.

Times of crisis in healthcare can often lead to an overall improvement in the community. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, people come together. Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t take long for things to revert to business as usual.

In the midst of, and the immediate aftermath of, a hurricane such as Irma, people change. They adopt a spirit of ownership. Nobody thinks twice about doing work that’s outside of their normal job descriptions. People make decisions without blaming management or policies for inactions.

When times are in their worst, people are often at their best.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy, and all too human to forget, the “we’re all in this together” spirit, and return to business and politics as usual once the crisis has passed. Finding ways to remember the spirit and memorialize the event can help ensure that the lessons are sustained.

Hopefully, these are few and far between. Because of that, though, take this opportunity to thank the people that you work with, the community you live in, and the leaders that may have given you some direction during your most demanding times.

Spend time to develop the next level leader, give responsibility, empower others, and allow this crisis to be a positive teaching moment.

With this said, the crisis may have been a total disaster for your organization, and it may take days or even weeks to physically and emotionally come back to normal. But by training and exposing your workforce today, the next time the crisis hits the fan, you will be better prepared with battle-tested employees and leaders.

Success in any situation is all about strong leadership. Manatee County government, our cities and our state demonstrated proven leadership and provided the direction to accomplish a task that is rarely ever seen in hospital management: the evacuation of a total hospital.

Crisis happens in every organization, and it does not have to be of the magnitude of a Category 5 hurricane that will be a direct hit to Manatee County.

We thank God that all our patients, doctors, volunteers, visitors and employees were safe and sound.

This story was originally published October 13, 2017 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Kevin DiLallo’s Lessons from Irma: Take time to thank our community."