Chapter Appendix B - What Went Right
Section Department of Health and Human Services
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Department of Health and Human Services
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) quickly identified the need for specific guidance on how to get hospitals in the region affected by the hurricane and flood reopened and running again. The Agency developed easy to read information, and checklists regarding supplies, medications, staffing, patient transport, reopening evaluation, and management.37 AHRQ developed this information and got it into the hands of the State and Local leaders responsible for making hospitals function again.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deployed approximately 200 personnel to the affected region, including the following specialties: public health nursing, occupational, laboratory, medical, epidemiology, sanitation, environmental health, disease surveillance, public information and health risk communication. CDC led and/or assisted with a variety of emergency public health programs.38 CDC immunization experts helped to provide vaccines and vaccinate children displaced by Hurricane Katrina, especially those staying in evacuation centers. Most importantly, they determined which diseases would result from the hurricane and flood, and not only monitored the region for them, they also communicated information on these diseases and others the public might be worried about, helping to allay public fears.39 They helped to fill gaps in the public health infrastructure, prevented disease from gaining a foothold in the already devastated region, and communicated health-related information to the public.
Many victims of the hurricane and flood took charge of their own medical care to the extent that they could. In response to their demands for more information, for two weeks immediately after the hurricane and flood, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) expanded their program for medical consultation to not only help health care providers throughout the Nation, but also specifically assist patients and the worried well in the affected region. Working with their partners in academic medical centers and professional medical societies, NIH opened and manned phone lines all day every day to answer questions about a variety of diseases and cases involving complicated medical treatment. NIH immediately recognized that they were in the best position to match medical experts with health care providers and patients in need of answers - providing both groups with the information they needed to better manage health care concerns in the midst of the crisis.40
The U.S. Public Health Service staff from the Bureau of Prisons Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Texas provided support in response to Hurricane Katrina in a number of ways. For example, Lieutenant Commander Christopher L. McGee, Social Worker, was deployed for two weeks serving in a special needs shelter for elderly, wounded, and cognitively-impaired persons. While on a mission to locate a missing shelter resident, he and two National Guards members found a man lying on the ground surrounded by several other men that were hitting and kicking him. Specialists Christopher L. Horne and Mark D. Miller from the 528th Engineering unit, and Lieutenant Commander McGee intervened and stopped the assault, and then provided emergency care to the victim. While awaiting emergency medical response, the victim became combative and had to be restrained until paramedics arrived. After treatment, the man was safely returned to his family in Arizona the next day. During his tour, Lieutenant Commander McGee and his team, were able to locate and reunite approximately 296 shelter residents with family or community support systems. Additionally, Commander William Resto-Rivera and his medical team provided treatment and services to more than 130 elderly nursing home residents who had been displaced, and then prepared them for immediate movement. Captain Barbara J. Jenkins, Nurse Manager of Carswell's Mental Health Inpatient Unit, also performed brief mental health assessments for over 250 soldiers and civilians, both responders and victims.
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