Sentara Commitments: Always Work Together as a Team to Provide You Quality Healthcare
The timing could not have been worse. A roofing company had removed much of the outer covering on the huge Sentara Healthcare Central Distribution facility in Chesapeake last Thursday. With no rain in the forecast, they did not put down any tarps and left hundreds of holes in the roof where the new layers would be attached the next day. That’s when an unexpected summer thunderstorm formed at 3:15 p.m. and dumped a 15-minute torrent of rain on the warehouse.
“Almost 20% of the roof area was exposed,” recalls Sentara Vice President of Materials Management Carl Manley. “We had a lot of damaged inventory.”
Not only were hundreds of boxes of supplies soaking wet from water cascading through the holes in the roof, but up to three inches of water covered much of the concrete floor in the warehouse, which includes a multi-level conveyor system run by a bank of computers and, you guessed it, high-voltage electricity.
The landlord, First Potomac, quickly hired a fire restoration company which brought in equipment to remove most of the standing water. Warehouse staff on the 2nd shift pitched in with shopvacs and floor scrubbers to pick up the remaining water and bring down sopping wet boxes from shelves on the mezzanine level.
“They did an outstanding job,” Manley says of his warehouse team. “They understood the importance of filling overnight orders for our customers, the hospitals, even though we had this terrible mess to clean up.”
In just three hours the warehouse team helped remove the water from over three quarters of the floor area and removed damaged inventory from their primary work locations. Then, at 6:30 p.m., they went to work picking orders that they were still able to fill for overnight delivery.
The next morning, Manley sent a system email apologizing for the delay in filling some orders, 
however, by Friday night, Materials Management had replenished the damaged inventory and was back to supplying the just-in-time daily needs of Sentara facilities, in spite of a punishing natural disaster. The damaged inventory filled six tractor-trailers with stock ranging from gowns, gloves and syringes to packets of sugar worth an estimated $300,000.
For their outstanding teamwork under difficult conditions, Carl Manley commends his Materials Management team.
“They were resilient,” he says.
Learn more about our commitment to improving health every day.
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