Hurricane Sandy puts NJ hospital under extreme stress, highlighting vulnerabilities, areas requiring improvement.

When monster storm, Hurricane Sandy, struck the northeastern coast in late October, the emergency systems for many hospitals in the region were stressed beyond their limits. At least four hospitals in the region had to be evacuated, and many hospitals lost power and access to essential services. Using backup generators, CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, NJ, was able to keep its doors open throughout the emergency, but the event highlighted a number of vulnerabilities that administrators will work to improve. Demand for care spiked because people in the hospital's service area could not get in to see their primary care providers. The hospital established care areas next to its emergency department to handle the demand, and it also enabled physicians in the region to see patients in offices on an ambulatory campus, adjacent to the hospital. Emergency department visits increased by about 41% during the hurricane week, admits went up by about 50%, and the number patients sent to observation went up by 450%, according to hospital administrators. In the future, hospital leaders say practice drills need to regularly test for events that cause many systems to go down, rather then testing for one vulnerability at a time.