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MEMORANDUM

TO: All members of the UNC Health Care community

FROM: Brian P. Goldstein, MD, MBA

DATE: September 7, 2005

SUBJECT: UNC Health Care participation in hurricane Katrina relief effort

On behalf of the entire Health Care System leadership, I wish to thank the many of you who have expressed a willingness to volunteer time and effort on behalf of individuals impacted by hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

This email summarizes two specific options for you to volunteer to be a part of a coordinated and UNC-sponsored relief effort. Details on how to sign up are below. We are fortunate to have here outstanding trauma and disaster preparedness programs; the leaders of those programs are already coordinating our employees' participation in relief operations, and will continue to do so.

UNCHCS has committed to actively support two distinct and independent relief operations:

1. State Medical Assistance Team II deployed to Waveland, Mississippi.
The State Medical Assistance Team (SMAT) program was created in NC after 9/11/2001. These SMAT teams, one for each of eight regions across the state (corresponding to regions for the state trauma system) were originally conceived to respond to disasters within the state of North Carolina. The federal government requested that SMAT teams be deployed in the Gulf region to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. Our SMAT team was paired with a mobile field hospital based in Charlotte --called Med One-- to establish a 110-bed temporary facility in Waveland, Mississippi. Many of you have seen other emails, and other media reports, describing the work of this relief operation. Six individuals from UNC are a part of the initial contingent of volunteers setting up and operating this field hospital. For more information, see the Weblog established by UNC Hospitals to receive information from the team in the field, http://www.unchospitals.blogspot.com/

It is expected that this field hospital will continue to operate for at least several weeks. Meanwhile, we intend that no individual volunteer stay for more than a two-week period. Thus we anticipate a need to rotate additional UNC volunteers into this site at discrete intervals over the next several weeks. The next deployment is tentatively scheduled to depart on Friday, September 9. That deployment is already full, but we expect there will be additional deployments in the coming weeks. If you wish to volunteer for a future deployment to this SMAT site, please go to http://www.midcarolinatraumarac.com , then click on "Volunteer information page", and fill out the requested information. Chris Ogden, UNC Hospitals Trauma Program Manager, or her designee will contact you to discuss details. At this time we do not know for certain which types of healthcare professionals will be in the greatest demand over the coming weeks. We expect that the team will continue to need at least a few physicians for each deployment. We also anticipate a need for nurses with an emergency medicine background and/or military experience. Nurses with pediatric, ICU, medical, OR, and psychiatric experience may also be needed. The site may also request pharmacists, respiratory therapists, other mental health professionals, or other healthcare practitioners. If you are interested, the best thing to do right now is to provide the information at the above-listed website and await feedback as to whether individuals with your particular background are being sought. You must also notify your supervisor/department that you have volunteered. Employees who are released for volunteer service by their supervisor will receive their usual compensation, benefits, and professional liability coverage during deployment.

2. National Institutes of Health Federal Medical Shelter (field hospital) in Meridian, Mississippi.
The Federal Department of Health and Human Services, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, enlisted the help of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to speed clinical resources to hurricane-ravaged areas. Among other activities, NIH has established a field hospital at Key Field Air National Guard Station in Meridian, Mississippi. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a branch of NIH, took the lead in helping to mobilize clinical teams for this specific field hospital. Because of NIEHS's Triangle location, Duke and UNC have been called upon early to recruit clinicians to staff this field facility. Along with many individuals from NIH in Bethesda, at least 41 individuals from Duke are already a part of the initial deployment to Meridian. Additional Duke personnel (as well as staff from Johns Hopkins) are scheduled to depart for the site within the next day or two. Meanwhile, UNC has offered to prepare a second wave of volunteers to spell this initial cohort in 7-14 days. We expect this field hospital to be set up initially with upwards of 500 beds, with the capacity for more. Unfortunately, most other details are still unclear at this time. Among the things we do not know at this time: a) the types of patients that will be seen (adult, pediatric, OB, etc.), b) the range of clinical conditions, c) the patients' severity of illness, d) the mix of true inpatients versus ambulatory patients, e) the supplies and equipment that will be available, f) the timing and pace of admissions, g) how long this field hospital will operate.

If you volunteer to go to this field hospital in Meridian, Mississippi, we expect you will be asked to stay for approximately 14 days. We do not yet have an exact departure date for the (first) UNC contingent but we expect it would be sometime between 9/12 & 9/16. It is possible that UNC will be asked to provide staff in subsequent weeks, perhaps in alternating fashion with Duke. If you are willing to volunteer for this effort, please go to www.midcarolinatraumarac.com, then click on "Volunteer information page", and fill out the requested information. (NOTE: this web page was designed for the SMAT program. We have modified the application to cover both programs). You must notify your supervisor/department that you have volunteered. Employees who are released for volunteer service by their supervisor will receive their usual compensation, benefits, and professional liability coverage during deployment. As we gain more information about what types of practitioners are needed, and when, we will contact each volunteer. There could be a need for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, mental health professionals, and/or other practitioners.

If you are a resident physician and wish to volunteer for either activity, please fill out the information at the website and make sure to indicate your year of residency training your specialty. At this time we do not know whether resident physicians will be permitted to participate.

I appreciate your patience as we try to get more detailed information about these opportunities. We will try to communicate as often and as concisely as possible. Thank you again for your willingness to consider helping those in need.

A final note: According to the AAMC, roughly 40 medical facilities have been established in the affected areas of the Gulf. As the next several days unfold, we will work to understand how these sites' sponsors are coordinating their efforts. If you receive detailed information from colleagues, or from national organizations, about other sites, please forward the information to Jennifer Lord at jennifer_lord@med.unc.edu.

 

 

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