Prince William hospitals prepare for surge of patients

Prince William area hospitals will follow their emergency plans during inauguration week, anticipating that the local population could double at times.

“People who are driving from Richmond [along Interstate 95] and Winchester [along I-66] and as they are passing through the major thoroughfares of Prince William County we will have a huge population for short periods of time,” said Mike Friesen, emergency preparedness coordinator for Prince William Hospital.

And with double the people comes the likelihood of double the number of sprained ankles, broken legs, car accidents and heart attacks. It also increases the odds of something more serious happening.

“With what we anticipate to be a surge in the population of our service area, those people who are coming into town, who are staying here, eating here and driving on our roads, we anticipate that we will get some surge of patients related to that background of basic health care needs of people,” Friesen said.

“We are definitely planning for a surge in population,” said Charlene Wilkins, spokeswoman for Potomac Hospital. “We do expect to serve more patients in the emergency room with the usual complaints and it certainly will be more than usual.”

“We think under the best-case scenario that our emergency room will be busier than normal,” Friesen said. “Under the worst-case scenario, we are preparing to handle a large mass casualty situation.”

At Prince William, a team of hospital employees has been meeting for the past month to ensure that its overall emergency plan covers all aspects of how the increase in population and the increase in traffic will affect the hospital.

“All we are doing in this case is reviewing our plan within the context of 1.5 million to 5 million visitors to the National Capital Area,” Friesen said.

“We have been planning for this for a few months and we’ve been aggressive in our planning, inside the hospital, inside the county and within the region,” Wilkins said. “I think we’ve been proactive.”

Hospital officials also are planning that there may be some people who develop health emergency issues in Washington but will not seek treatment until they return to the Prince William area.

“They are going to leave DC and they are all going to leave at the same time. They will drive to wherever they are going and there is the potential for massive traffic jams,” Friesen said. “These people might get sick downtown but might get to where they are staying and decided they need to go to the hospital.”

Aside from the normal health care issues of an increased population, hospitals are also planning for the possibility of a natural or manmade disaster that could cause mass casualties — a bus accident, for example.

“They are going to come here and we’ve got to be ready for them,” Friesen said.

As part of the emergency plans, the hospitals are bringing in extra medical supplies, food and water.

“What we’ve done is figure out how much we use in a week and double it,” Friesen said.

Potomac Hospital also has adjusted its ordering and supplies even though it already has a surge stock supply on hand specifically for emergencies.

Given the expected transportation nightmare, the hospitals want to make sure that they get their supplies and services ahead of time.

“If it’s local in Manassas, we consider it a high probability that it will occur. If it’s a vendor from suburban Maryland, we consider that a very low probability,” Friesen said. “Normal services almost certainly will not occur on Monday or Tuesday, because of the Inauguration, because the roads will be too busy.”

“We’ve definitely taken that into account and we’ve made arrangements to make sure we have everything we need,” she said.

Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-878-8010.