How a comprehensive disaster plan helped NOVO Health Services maintain linen quality, availability and service during Hurricane Irma.
The Power of Planning
One of NOVO’s healthcare customers is a large hospital system in the state of Florida. NOVO won the RFP to supply the hospitals’ linen services, in part, by providing a comprehensive disaster plan.
Upon the award, NOVO immediately began preparing for potential hurricanes. The preparations came at the right time. NOVO had to implement its disaster plan just a few months later.
As Harvey raged against the Southern U.S., NOVO organized logistics and other efforts to ship more than $200,000 worth of clean, usable inventory from its South Florida facility to hospitals that needed immediate emergency relief in Louisiana and Texas. Then, within one week, South Florida became a target for its own hurricane system — Irma.
With Irma on its way, the local NOVO team began implementing its disaster plan and communicating regularly with its suppliers and the area hospitals. Because it is often difficult to gain access to affected areas after a natural disaster, NOVO deployed two senior staff members — Cox and Chief Operating Officer Karl Fillip II — to Miami for pre- and post-hurricane support.
“Starting about six days out, we held daily conference calls with all the affected hospitals,” Cox says. “We talked about their daily preparations and walked through what they were expecting and experiencing. We also provided daily email communications with status updates.”
As part of its disaster plan, NOVO committed to providing one to two par above normal inventory thresholds, depending on the item, for each hospital in the event of a hurricane.