semitism.net

I hope Brad, and our readers, won’t mind too much if I post off topic for a few days. If I get a chance to post at all. I’m leaving in a few hours for Houston to help with hurricane relief. There seems to be an urgent need for physicians there, and in Baton Rouge and other cities outside New Orleans (I don’t think much can be done in New Orleans except evacuate). As far as I can tell, there are thousands of physicians all over the U.S. ready to go down there and help out - but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is supposed to be coordinating the effort, is moving at a snail’s pace…

Note: I also posted this on Daily Kos.

I read in the Houston Chronicle today:

The intensifying medical needs of storm evacuees are perilously close to overwhelming the system set up to serve them.

Doctors treating storm refugees in a make-shift clinic at the Astrodome are seeing 100 patients an hour, sometimes boarding arriving buses to save time and pulling off the sickest individuals for immediate medical attention.

According to the plan put together by HHS, physicians are supposed to register with their local hospitals. The hospitals will forward the collected names to the American Hospital Association, which will send them to HHS. But HHS issued this plan on August 31, and has not been in touch with the AHA or anyone else since then.

The AHA staffer I spoke with said they are being flooded with calls. All they can do is take names and tell people to wait for a call back.

The administrator at my hospital confirmed this. She said she could not believe the HHS was giving no direction at all on what to do with the volunteers. The hospitals aren’t being told what information to collect, where physicians are needed, or what they can do when they arrive.

The Medical Society and Hospital Association web sites, following HHS guidance, specifically instruct physicians NOT to go down on their own. A friend of mine was warned that she would not be covered for medical liability unless she went under FEMA auspices.

Now word is out that HHS has hired a physician recruitment firm, JCNationwide, to place volunteers. I called the 800 number and got a recording saying they expected instructions from HHS by Tuesday September 6.

Tuesday?!! Well you wouldn’t expect them to cut short their Labor Day weekend to help coordinate hurricane relief, would you? Just because a bunch of refugees are critically ill and the medical system in Louisiana, Mississipi and Texas is overwhelemed?

Meanwhile Craig’s list is full of calls for pleas for help. For example:

Date: 2005-09-02, 3:54PM CDT. If you are certified medical personnel, please make it out to the Astrodome as soon as possible. You are needed everywhere, but they are extremely short handed. Please just SHOW UP…

I’ve got my ticket and I’m heading for Houston tomorrow morning. If they don’t need help there, I’ll rent a car and drive to Baton Rouge. I’ll post here about what I see.

It’s amazing that Craig’s List is a better resource for volunteers than anything HHS can put together.