UTMB leaders reflect on 9/11 lessons in emergency preparedness

Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a University of Texas Medical Branch leader says preparation and practice remain central to responding to emergencies in Galveston and across Southeast Texas.

Christine Wade, UTMB Health’s vice president of Surgical and Procedural Services, was working as an emergency department nurse at a New Jersey hospital on 9/11. Hospital staff activated a mass-casualty response and gathered in the ambulance bay, expecting injured patients from New York City.

The patients never arrived. As the hours passed, staff learned the attacks had prevented people from reaching the hospital.

Wade said the experience shaped her approach to emergency preparedness throughout her career. She spent about a decade working in New Jersey emergency departments, including at a major trauma center near New York City, before joining UTMB in 2012.

Since then, Wade has held leadership roles in clinical operations and emergency services. Her work has included overseeing the UTMB Health emergency departments in Galveston and League City and helping develop the health system’s infectious disease biocontainment program.

The UTMB Health Galveston Campus has a Level I Trauma Center serving as the lead trauma facility for a nine-county region of Southeast Texas. The campus also has the region’s only Level I trauma center that is an American Burn Association-verified burn center.

UTMB prepares for hurricanes, severe weather, industrial incidents, fires, cyberattacks, active shooter situations and mass-casualty events. Its all-hazards emergency management program includes risk assessments, emergency operations planning, training, exercises, continuity planning and disaster recovery.

Dylan Lancaster, UTMB’s associate vice president of Institutional Preparedness, said the region’s location creates a complex risk profile and gives the health system experience responding to different types of incidents.

Wade said regular exercises help teams practice their roles, test communication and response plans, and identify improvements before an emergency occurs. For her, the lasting lesson of 9/11 is that preparation can determine how an organization responds when circumstances do not go as planned.