BR General Receives Flood of Patients; PHNS Helps Baton Rouge Hospital Maintain Communications.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- As New Orleans hospitals are forced to evacuate, major trauma and critical care hospitals in Louisiana are being deluged with patients. One of those is Baton Rouge General (www.brgeneral.org) which is operating on generator power and crowding patients into every available unused space in the hospital.

With some creativity, a lot of verve, and plenty of generosity, BR General was able to have both long distance service and wireless Internet to serve new-found patient bed areas this morning. The efforts were spearheaded by PHNS (www.phns.com), the hospital's Dallas-based IT outsourcing company, and at least three other companies that are sending solutions to BR.

"The local phones were restored, but there was virtually no long distance service," said Ritch Roberts, a systems architect at PHNS. "The medical people need to be able to call doctors, insurance providers, specialists and family members that are outside the city. Then, we had an Aha moment and called Vonage in New Jersey and asked for help."

Vonage provides phone service to computers via broadband connections.

"They immediately agreed to help, donating the hardware as well as the local and long distance services so the hospital can dial out of Baton Rouge," said Roberts. "That's huge for the doctors and for patient care."

Roberts said BR was also in critical need of laptops with wireless connections that could be positioned in the new "patient areas." In order to meet demand, the hospital is using non-traditional sections to care for patients.

"Twenty Dell laptops are in transit and should arrive this afternoon," said Roberts. "Dell responded quickly to our request and wanted to help. Then we had to get the hardware from a local retail distributor and most of them are shut down in Baton Rouge."

Roberts began calling Radio Shacks in Baton Rouge and was relieved to find a willing partner on Florida Street in Baton Rouge. Roberts said the donated solutions are going to be of great help to the doctors who are treating patients.

"Now they can receive records, reports and information on patients," said Roberts, "and they can be in touch with attending doctors who will likely be in another city. It will be invaluable in the Emergency Room and triage areas. One thing is clear: Everyone really wants to help."