The impact of Hurricane Michael on hospitals and other health care facilities in Florida’s panhandle was enormous.

Nine hospitals suffered so much damage they were forced to close. Also, five nursing homes and 15 assisted-care facilities also closed.  In each case, patients had to be evacuated to other facilities.

Damage to the buildings included destroyed roofs, buckled walls and shattered windows.

Considering the enormous importance of always safe and functioning health care facilities are to communities, hospitals increasingly are looking for ways to make their buildings safer for their patients and employees. Among the considerations is installing security window film on all the windows. The film holds the glass in place, keeping it from shattering and sending shards of glass flying through the building, causing serious injuries.

After a series of hurricanes struck Florida’s east and west coasts in the early 2000s, the University of Florida & Shands Medical Center in Jacksonville installed 10,000 square feet of fragment retention film on 395 windows. The hospital is a critical care center making it difficult to move its patients should a weather disaster strike.

Hospitals also are beginning to secure their windows as part of an overall security plan for a possible domestic terrorist attack since health care facilities are particularly vulnerable. Security window films have been proven to hold glass in place under the most extreme bomb blast.