Leaders faced an unexpected decision: Move forward with the planned acquisition or delay the deal until the storm passed.
“We were, in the original plan, slated to have 50 transition team members on the ground on Sunday, getting ramped up for the transition on Tuesday,” Mike Thompson, president and CEO of AdventHealth’s Southeast Region, told Becker’s. “Obviously, with that event happening — and we knew, of course, earlier than that, that a hurricane might be headed that way — but I don’t think anybody anticipated the impact on Western North Carolina, nor did we.”
Despite the challenges, leaders decided to proceed with the transaction, acknowledging adjustments would be necessary.
Alignment under crisis
One benefit of moving forward, according to Mr. Thompson, was faster and more effective alignment between leadership teams.
“From a leadership perspective, what it afforded was the ability for the team that was there at St. Luke’s and our leadership team to lock arms on common goals very, very quickly, but also for us to express care and compassion for them individually,” he said.
“Many of the employees were impacted personally — their houses. We were able to actually send teams out for folks that were trapped, falling trees, or whatever the case may be, trying to get a count on our teams — just really expressing care, which is part of our mission statement.
“The ability for that to happen very quickly, I think, galvanized the team in a way that wouldn’t have happened in a more planned event if that hurricane had not happened.”
Bill Miller, former chair of the St. Luke’s Hospital board, shared similar sentiments.
“Our teammates, they didn’t really know about AdventHealth yet. And so because this disaster just threw them in there, side by side, instantly, our teammates were able to see, ‘Wow, these people don’t have to be here doing this, but they are. And they’re here with us, day and night, spending the night at the hospital, doing whatever has to happen to get this done and take care of our patients and our community,'” he told Becker’s.
“I think it probably showed our team, ‘Oh, this is a great partner and a great culture to be part of’ in a way that may have taken months or years to do without this.”
Communication challenges
Effective communication was another major hurdle. Software updates for satellite phones required cellular data, which was not available during the hurricane.
“I couldn’t communicate with Mike,” Mr. Miller said. “I tried to get a hotel in Hendersonville, Spartanburg and Greenville. None of them had power. I ended up driving to Charlotte just to be able to get into a hotel where I could have cell service and internet access so I could communicate with Mike and try to at least get discussions going. What are we going to do now? Are we moving forward or not moving forward?”
To resolve the issues, technical teams established connectivity, ensuring critical discussions could continue.
Infrastructure challenges
While the facilities were intact, infrastructure posed significant challenges.
“There wasn’t any physical damage to the facilities, but infrastructure was challenged,” Mr. Thompson said. “Running on generator power and getting clean water were all concerns in this space.
“And so one of the learnings was, for the most part, the code requirements require you to have redundancy when it comes to power generators and such, but it doesn’t require redundancy in water. Really looking at that was one of the learnings I think we’re going to ask ourselves: Is that a redundancy that we should explore in terms of facility and disaster planning?”
Employees also received fuel to ensure they could commute to and from work.
“The employees were incredibly committed,” Mr. Thompson said. “We did not have any issues with employees not doing heroic things to get in and work their shift. They just felt responsible for the community. I’m just super proud of them in that regard. But you’ve got to help them have the tools to be able to do that.”
The role of scale
The size of AdventHealth, with more than 50 hospital campuses and hundreds of care sites across nine states, played a key role during the transition.
“We were able to stage supplies in Atlanta, in areas that weren’t as impacted,” Mr. Thompson said. “As soon as roads were open, we could get supplies in. We were actually, I think, ahead of FEMA in a lot of our supply responses in that regard.”
Advice for healthcare executives
Reflecting on the experience, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Miller shared advice for other healthcare executives overseeing mergers — particularly in regions prone to natural disasters.
“When you talk about transactions like this, it’s easy to get caught up in the financial, legal and compliance dynamics. But the importance of culture and alignment of mission — and for the staff that are involved in the transaction to be able to align and trust each other — are things that you can’t put in a document,” Mr. Thompson said.
“They’re things that you can’t build into a financial statement, and yet they have a powerful impact on the performance of an organization in all of those facets, including quality and staff engagement. We would never want an event like this to happen. But if you’re in that situation, in a transaction like that, paying close attention to the items that will impact culture is very important not to lose sight of.”
Mr. Miller emphasized the importance of planning early and prioritizing disaster drills.
“If you’re a small, rural hospital that’s independent in America, without a partner, there’s a lot more planning to do and a lot more thought to go into how you’re going to be able to make some of these things happen,” he said.
“The AdventHealth team brought trailer loads of stuff into us during those crucial few days to keep us going and keep everything stable. And we would have had no way to really do that if we were an independent place. So, I think there’s certainly planning on everybody’s part. But if you’re a small, independent hospital in America, there’s probably a lot more thought that needs to go into how you’re going to handle some of these things.”
