winter storm<\/a> moves through North Texas.<\/p>\nAt Medical City Plano, the emergency room is preparing to stay busy around the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in the 24\/7 business. We want people to know we are here to care for them,\u201d Medical City Plano Chief Operations Officer Elizabeth Johnsen said,<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the full staff and complement that we would normally have, but we do have people on-call just in case,\u201d Emergency Room Director Dr. Patrick Zelley said.<\/p>\n
As temperatures drop across North Texas, doctors are warning patients about cold-related injuries, the types that will keep area ERs busy. Zelley said hypothermia is a major concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are feeling tingling or pain or any unusual symptoms in the fingers and toes, that\u2019s your body trying to give you a warning to seek heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doctors say the most common injuries during a winter storm are orthopedic, often from slips and falls on icy surfaces. Some patients are also expected to come in following car accidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One warning is that risk can increase as storms linger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe further you get from the beginning of [the storm], people become a little more bold and a little less cautious,” Zelley said. “You can avoid as much as possible by staying at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staying home, however, is not an option for hospital staff.<\/p>\n
To help employees avoid dangerous travel, the hospital converted an auditorium into sleeping quarters for staff on shifts. The space includes food, showers, and activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of staff that drive near and far,\u201d Johnsen said. “We have over a hundred mattresses, separating male and female accommodations…\u201d<\/p>\n
Medical City Plano began weather planning Monday. Johnsen said the focus is on patients and operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking sure we have enough supplies, and food, oxygen, pharmaceuticals,” she said. “If we were to miss a few days of deliveries, we have enough on hand to weather the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the winter storm moves through North Texas, hospital staff continue preparing to do just that \u2014 weather the storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a winter storm hits North Texas, Medical City Plano ensures its round-the-clock readiness by turning an auditorium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-136045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}