Emergency System Updates for Oct. 7, 2024

HURRICANE HELENE UPDATES

Find the latest information about hospital and clinic closures, modified hours, elective surgery status, classes, events, and more.

Ballad Health’s Corporate Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) remains active due to ongoing issues caused by severe weather throughout the region. Flooding, high winds and power outages continue to create problems throughout the Appalachian Highlands.

New/Updated Information

Greeneville Community Hospital resumes services, elective surgeries to begin Oct. 8

• Greeneville Community Hospital has resumed all services except for elective surgeries
• Elective surgical services will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 8 
• Emergency surgery is available 
• Inpatient services resumed on Saturday, Oct. 5, and outpatient services, including lab, sleep and radiology, resumed on Monday, Oct. 7
• The main entrance and the ED entrance are both open

Greeneville Center for Early Learning (CEL) planning to resume services

• The Greeneville CEL will resume services on Tuesday, Oct. 8 
• Ballad Health is working to accommodate childcare needs for essential team members
• Team members who need childcare assistance should contact Pam Smith at Pam.Smith@BalladHealth.org 

Laughlin Healthcare Center services remain suspended, plans to reopen this week

• Residents from Laughlin Healthcare Center in Greeneville were successfully evacuated to Wexford House in Kingsport due to unstable utilities in Greeneville.
• Plans are underway to reopen Laughlin Healthcare the Week of Oct. 7.

Surgeries resumed at Kingsport hospitals

The boil water notice in Kingsport has been lifted, so Holston Valley Medical Center and Indian Path Community Hospital resumed elective surgeries on Friday, Oct. 4.

Canceled/resumed classes

• Beginning Monday, Oct. 7, Ballad Health classes will resume on regular schedule. This includes AHA, Clinical Education, CPR, Epic Education, Organizational Development.
• Mandatory licensed nursing skills fairs scheduled in October have been canceled

Support through the Ballad Health Foundation

Multiple assistance funds have been established:

• Disaster Relief Fund – Helps allocate resources for the greatest needs among our patients, team members or our communities.
• Ballad Health Patient Assistance Funds – Support patients in need through navigators and resource specialists.
• Ballad Health Team Member Emergency Fund – Assist team members with food, housing, and transportation needs, administered through local HR offices.

To donate to any of these funds, visit the Ballad Health Foundation Disaster page.

Ballad Health Foundation has set up a new text option. Text disasterrelief to 44834 to make a gift.

Donations of relief supplies

• Due to the overwhelming response, the donation of relief supplies and goods is being centralized to the Northeast Tennessee Disaster Relief Center (NETDRC) located in the South Building at Bristol Motor Speedway. 
• The NETDRC will serve as a major donation and collection site, provide workspace for the logistics and search and rescue teams in a central staging area, and also house a regional disaster relief hotline, 423-830-2696.
• The donation center is open daily from 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. 
• The donation bins available outside of hospital gift shops will be removed on Friday, Oct. 11, and items will be transported to the NTDRC for regional distribution.

Reminders

Sycamore Shoals Hospital resumes all services

• Inpatient services resumed on Wednesday, Oct. 2. 
• Surgeries resumed on Thursday, Oct. 3

Medical Response Unit operations continue in Erwin, TN

Located in the auditorium parking lot of Unicoi County High School in Erwin, the site provides 24/7 first aid, triage for minor illnesses and injuries and stabilization, including: 

• Basic treatment of infections 
• Stabilization and transfer for trauma and serious conditions
• Respiratory infections
• Skin infections

Located at 700 S. Mohawk Drive in Erwin, TN. Unicoi County Hospital team members will be staffing the unit around the clock until further notice. 

Flood recovery safety guidelines

Anyone involved in disaster cleanup should check their tetanus vaccine status.

• If working in muddy areas should wear a mask or respirator as there is a possibility toxins, 
  irritants, chemicals and bacteria have settled into the mud and could be released as a 
  microscopic airborne dust. 
• If you or your family have a bee allergy, please be aware the flooding has disturbed bee hives so 
  please have all need supplies on hand— EpiPens and Benadryl as prescribed by your healthcare 
  provider. 

Prior to the floods, there was already an increase in West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine 
Encephalitis, diseases spread by mosquitos. If working outside, please:

• Use insect repellent
• Wear loose-fitting long sleeve shirts and pants to cover all exposed skin 
• Additional tips can be found here: Preventing Mosquito Bites | Mosquitoes | CDC
• Vaccine considerations - Hepatitis A vaccine is a routinely recommended vaccine for adults and children. Being exposed to floodwater is not a recommendation for this vaccine, but it’s still important to ensure you are up to date with all routinely recommended vaccines.

For health and safety questions or concerns related to flooding or power outages due to the hurricane, call the Northeast Regional Health Office’s Citizen Information Line at 423-979-4689, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

For questions, please contact the Ballad Health Corporate Emergency Operations Center at BalladHealthCorporateEOC@BalladHealth.org.