Mint Physician Staffing Responds to Hurricane Harvey

Mint Physician Staffing offers its condolences to all those affected by Hurricane Harvey and the devastating flood impacting the Houston region. As a Houston-based company, we want to do all we can to help those in need.

We have partnered with hospitals throughout the Houston region—including Sugarland, Tomball, and Pasadena areas—and have been providing physician coverage for these facilities since Harvey made landfall on Friday.

Friday afternoon as Harvey approached, Mint Physician Staffing received a phone call from a large hospital system. They needed immediate coverage at three facilities starting that same Friday at 7pm and for the next 96 hours because their attending physicians were unable to travel daily to their hospitalized patients as they normally do. Mint knew travel throughout Houston would be near impossible, and that they would have to recruit a physician who was ready to “camp out” at the hospital for four days, and possibly longer.

Our team went to work immediately to find physicians available. At one site, we were able to find a physician that could get there safely within a few hours. Unfortunately, as the downpour increased throughout the weekend, so did the water surrounding the hospital. As it began to rise, the streets became impassable and everyone inside the hospital has virtually been trapped. Our physician working at this site has been in constant communication with her Mint recruiter, sending her periodic text message updates.

“We are stuck in the hospital,” she says. A majority of cars that were in the parking lot have also flooded. Fortunately, she adds, everyone has kept safe and dry inside. They have enough food to last and clean running water. Inside the hospital, nurses and staff are visibly tired, but “there is a great community spirit of everyone helping each other out.”

At another hospital about one hour north, one of our physicians has been the only physician on-site 24 hours a day. She hasn’t been home in days and has no idea how her apartment downtown has fared. Providing care to the patients has been the only thing that has kept her mind off of the possible disaster she’ll be returning home to.

“There haven’t been any real emergencies” in the hospital, she says. “There’s a diabetic patient with low blood pressure” that she’s been regularly checking on. Although the patient volume has been manageable, she’s been told their hospital may soon see an uptick due to other hospitals closing or becoming completely inaccessible.

What began as 96-hour shifts for these physicians has now increased to up to 144-hour shifts. We have doctors working tirelessly during this difficult time, often as the only doctor in the building. We anticipate that more patient care will be needed in the coming days, and Mint will continue to make available its physician network to any facility in the Houston area in dire need.

Mint Physician Staffing is a locum tenens staffing agency with offices in Houston, TX and Miami, FL. Mint specializes in placing physicians in the areas of Emergency Medicine, Outpatient Medicine, and Hospital Medicine. Mint provides medical malpractice insurance, in-house credentialing, support for hospital credentialing, travel and lodging accommodations when needed, and provides a single point of contact for all of your staffing needs. For more info, visit www.mintphysicians.com. Contact us at 866.312.1177 or info@mintphysicians.com.

Elvin Matos, Marketing Manager
866.312.1177
ematos@mintphysicians.com

Mint Physician Staffing
10777 Westheimer Rd, Suite 925
Houston, TX 77042

This release was published on openPR.