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650 Safely Evacuated from Children's Hospital of New Orleans
Thanks to the collaboration of the CHCA network, a total of 650 staff and patients were safely evacuated from Children's Hospital of New Orleans within a 24 hour period. The 100 patients are now being cared for by CHCA hospitals in the region. Kansas City, Houston, Fort Worth, Little Rock, Miami, Dallas, Birmingham, Atlanta and Le Bonheur all received patients and/or assisted in the transport of patients and supplies. Numerous CHCA Owner Hospitals continue to assist in other ways. "The support of the southern CHCA coalition has been tremendous," said Andree Trosclair, Vice President of Human Resources, Little Rock; this sentiment has been echoed many times over across the CHCA network.
Please know that the secondary wave of patients affected by Katrina has begun and we expect CHCA hospitals to see increases in patient transports over the next two weeks. We will do our best to keep you updated.
- CHCA’s Pharmacy staff is working with FFF Enterprises, Talecris, Baxter Bio and all wholesalers to ensure that critical products are available to the children’s hospitals that are taking pediatric patients from the Gulf Coast.
- Universal Hospital Services (UHS) is establishing an 800 number to handle equipment requests (e.g. IV pumps, IV poles, incubators, cribs, vents, respirators and a variety of other moveable medical equipment). If your facility or anyone in your area needs additional equipment to handle the immediate patient influx, please contact Steve Heintze directly at 952-893-3266.
- STERIS (a company that sells OR capital equipment and sanitation/sterilization supplies) has offered its assistance in supplying items such as waterless cleansing solutions, hand wipes and alcohol-based sterilization. If you are interested, please contact Jon Parnell directly at 616-510-0678.
- Following an urgent request yesterday for security assistance at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, Brian Landry, Vice President of Marketing, Public Affairs & Development, reported that input from the CHCA network resulted in the hospital securing a viable security solution.
- If you or your staff are approached to assist as volunteers for MASH and other treatment centers, please coordinate these activities with FEMA. Not only will this minimize chaos, but there you may be eligible for federal monies to support your efforts. The volunteer’s (or the hospital’s) ability to access funding could be impacted if not coordinated appropriately. Note: yesterday, we were alerted that independent contractors had requested the volunteer support of some CHCA hospital pharmacists.
Posted: 3:30 p.m. 9/2/2005
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