Parkland Medical Center - February 12, 2025
by Ryan Lawrence

3 min Read Time

Meet Neil Moore, trauma program manager at Parkland Medical Center. As part of the HCA Healthcare Enterprise Incident Management & Support Team, Neil and others respond to significant events that affect HCA facilities such as hurricanes or floods, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In this role, Neil was deployed to the Nashville Enterprise Emergency Operations Center for the Hurricane Ian response in 2022 where he assisted in tracking patient movement from two HCA hospitals that had be to be evacuated.

For Hurricane Helene in 2024, Neil was deployed to Florida prior to the storm’s arrival and was tasked with assisting two HCA hospitals to evacuate (West Tampa and Pasadena) due to the risk of flooding from storm surge. Some of the team stayed onsite at the Pasadena hospital overnight to reassess in the morning, while Neil and his colleague were dispatched to North Florida Hospital in Gainesville to assist with their pre-storm preparedness.

The night of the storm, the hospital lost power, and the NICU generator did not kick in. Neil and his colleague assisted in moving two premature babies on vents to another wing among other duties. Once the hospital was secure with power and resources, Neil and his partner were redeployed to Mission Hospital, an 8-hour drive away in North Carolina. But on the way, they were redirected to Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin, Georgia where the hospital had lost power and water supply was a concern.

Neil and his partner drove over three hours to get there, following the path of the destructive storm. Trees were down on power lines, there was no cell service, gas stations had no power, and houses and vehicles had been badly damaged.

“The destruction was overwhelming, and it was like we were following the path of a tornado” Neil recalled.

At Fairview Park Hospital for two days, Neil was asked to partner with the hospital’s media relations team to help keep patients and community members updated. Neil was able to see the important role the Public Information Officer (PIO) has in the local community. They were then retasked to Nashville, Tenn. to debrief with other team members before flying back to New Hampshire.

“My deployments have given me insight into how HCA Healthcare is able to assist its facilities, its staff, and community, and recover from such widespread events,” Neil said. “It is impressive to see what resources we have available through HCA Healthcare, and how committed everyone is in the organization to do what is best for their local communities.”