NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — We rely on our local hospitals when the unthinkable happens. But who's making sure those hospitals are prepared to handle whatever comes into their doors? NewsChannel 5 got an exclusive tour of the Hospital Corporation of America's Emergency Operations Center, based in Nashville.
It's positioned deep below one of HCA's office buildings, where executives have their eyes and ears on the rest of the world.
In the EEOC, HCA employees are able to keep tabs on their 181 hospitals. After all, we live in a world that is hard to predict.
"We’re constantly looking at weather conditions and what this week is going to bring us," said Mike Wargo, vice president for Enterprise, Preparedness and Emergency Operations for HCA. "Be it a mass shooting, a hurricane, an IT outage."
But ironically, predicting what happens next is exactly what Wargo is trained to do.
"Anticipating two, three steps ahead of them," he said. "No matter what the time of day is, no matter what the season is, we have to stand ready."
To do this, Wargo and his team has to be able to communicate with their hospitals, no matter the scenario, which means they utilize the newest and oldest technology.
"Ham radio," Wargo said in a tour of the communications room. "An older style of communication but it’s been a reliable communication form."
The idea for a command center first came in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina flooded one of their medical centers in New Orleans. But it was really put to the test on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, which still ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
"They saw 214 survived gunshot victims within 90 minutes of the shooting," said Wargo.
From hundreds of miles away in the EEOC, HCA executives were able to get trauma supplies on airplanes out to Las Vegas within a matter of hours.
"I think without that resource, that local community wouldn’t have as many victims that survive that shooting," he said.
In most situations, the room is used to handle disasters that happen far away from Music City, but in some situations, tragedies have hit at home.
"Including waking up Christmas morning to the bombing here in Nashville," said Wargo.
While no innocent people were killed when the 2020 Christmas Day bomb was detonated in front of the AT&T Data building, it caused a communication crisis.
"It took all the public safety phones down, 911 centers were out, our hospitals couldn’t communicate because the AT&T fiber was down," he said.
So HCA did what they seem to do best — becoming the eyes and ears their communities need.
"We had to rely on our satellite communications," said Wargo.
When the EEOC staff isn't directly dealing with a natural disaster or tragedy, they're working on plans to be ready for the next one.
