UAB Synopsis, Vol. 24, No. 42, November 14/21, 2005

UAB Community Offers Care And Compassion

In the hours and days following ultra-destructive Hurricane Katrina, the UAB Health System (UABHS) responded with a massive and immediate relief effort, sending first-response teams into devastated areas, triaging evacuees at Birmingham's Air National Guard hangar, helping coordinate routing of patients to area hospitals, and operating an on-site clinic at Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center (BJCC) for more than 600 refugees. Hundreds of University Hospital faculty and staff stepped up to volunteer, offering medical expertise and disaster coordination skills learned in drills designed to prepare them for just such an event.

Critical Care Transport (CCT) was among the first medical evacuation units to arrive in New Orleans, evacuating six infants and two adults within 48 hours of the storm's passing, and eventually transporting a total of 21 patients. On subsequent trips, CCT brought food, water, clothes, and medical supplies to hospital personnel working under extreme conditions without power, water, or good communication with the outside world.

"UAB was proud to be called upon as first responder through CCT," says UABHS Associate Vice President and CCT Administrator Robert Cofield, DrPH. "In the disaster's aftermath, CCT has continued to serve evacuees in the Birmingham region and will continue to do so until the Gulf Coast gets back on its feet."

UAB faculty and staff were on hand, along with other community organizations, to triage the 159 evacuees who arrived at Birmingham's Air National Guard hanger via three C-130 aircraft. Evacuees were routed to Birmingham by the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) that moves medical teams, supplies, and equipment to affected areas and evacuates injured individuals to unaffected areas for medical care.

The Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Services System trauma communication center coordinated distribution of 98 patients to 12 Birmingham-area NDMS hospitals. Medical personnel at the airport triaged patients to disease-related color-coded tarps and had them en route to area hospitals within 45 minutes of aircraft arrival.

"People responded creatively and compassionately to a difficult situation," CCT Medical Director Marlon Priest, MD, says. "We thank the medical staff a thousand times over for its efforts on many fronts during this disaster."

As 1 of 17 NDMS hospitals in Alabama, University Hospital provides about half of the 827 beds available in the state. Ultimately, UABHS providers at University Hospital (UH), UAB Medical West (UABMW), and HealthSouth Medical Center admitted 31 patients through the NDMS system, and UABHS continues to care for patients displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

UAB: Key Role at BJCC Shelter

UAB doctors and community colleagues also saw hundreds of patients at the BJCC shelter. "UAB played a major leadership role," says Associate Professor of Pathology Richard Powers, MD, who was recently appointed medical director for Alabama's Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation — a position created to coordinate care for mentally handicapped people during such events. "The situation was chaotic — quiet one moment; flooded with patients the next. Systems did not always work, but volunteers worked calmly and efficiently to meet evacuees' medical needs."

Dr. Powers notes that BJCC became a word-of-mouth medical hub, not just for refugees sheltered there, but for other evacuees scattered around Birmingham. Many people staying in hotels or with friends needed immediate medical assistance — prescription refills, blood sugar checks, insulin shots, or critical heart medicines.

"Without medication and established routines, mentally ill people can quickly deteriorate," he says. "After consulting with Division of Public Psychiatry Director Dr. Jackie Feldman, we sent many distressed individuals to her clinic. That is just one example of the many UAB specialty clinics that opened their doors."

Other UABHS support

• The Kirklin Clinic® medical faculty served at local Red Cross shelters. UH provided pharmacy technicians and drugs to these same shelters.
• UABMW employees donated 300 toiletry bags to local evacuees, as well as some in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
• UABMW employees sponsored a baby shower for a Louisiana patient and her twins born at the center.
• HealthSouth Medical Center employees assisted FEMA with health information management activities in Mississippi for weeks in October.
• UAB and UABHS have offered to deploy a team of 15 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the Gulf Coast region.
• Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital physicians, nurses, and other staff members were on standby for ocular emergencies.

"I want to congratulate the incredible number of physicians, nurses, and staff who volunteered," Cofield says. UAB's response was so large that not all those who offered help could be utilized. Some in the UAB community found ways to help outside official channels.