Pharmacists rally to help Hurricane Katrina victims, set precedent
Disaster shows gaps in emergency planning
Pharmacists in Texas thought they would have to travel to Louisiana to help Hurricane Katrina victims. Many didn’t realize that evacuees would instead be coming to them — testing current emergency plans and showing the gaps that need to be filled in responding to such a large natural disaster.
The country watched in August as Katrina and the resulting floodwaters devastated New Orleans and other cities on the Gulf Coast. State and city officials in Austin immediately saw the need to make pharmacy services available to Katrina evacuees, so the Texas Pharmacy Association (TPA) put out a statewide call for volunteers.
The initial call was to volunteer in Louisiana, says Kim Roberson, RPh, senior director of professional affairs for TPA. It wasn’t long, though, before officials began evacuating hurricane victims from New Orleans to Texas shelters. The question then became how to handle the tremendous number of people being housed there.
The state began by organizing health care for the evacuees. Pharmaceutical drug companies and physician offices donated drug samples for temporary medical centers at the shelters. Pharmacists took the drugs, categorized them, and then put them out on tables where they could be easily accessed by medical personnel. This area also was protected by local law enforcement officials.
Dennis Roy, RPh, traveled about 60 miles to Austin to volunteer almost a week after the relief effort had begun. When he arrived at the Convention Center, he was impressed by the medical triage area. "It was amazingly well organized under the circumstances," he says. "Everyone was tuned into the seriousness of the situation." The medication room was petitioned off and drugs were arranged by therapeutic category.
After making a diagnosis, the physician would often approach Roy and ask for a certain drug or what was available within a given category. He and the other pharmacist volunteering at that time would then "run the aisles" to help the physicians.
Roy found that at his location many of the drug samples consisted of higher-priced "Cadillac" drugs. More basic, generic drugs were not as available. Fortunately, some of the major pharmacy chains had arrived to fill the void.
After consulting with TPA through conference calls, chains such as CVS and Walgreens rolled semitrailer trucks into the various major shelters in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin, Roberson reports. "They set up pharmacies inside these trailers," she says.
CVS brought an 18-wheeler to the Convention Center, Roy recalls, and provided many evacuees with the basic drugs they needed.
Physicians might give patients a starter dose of medication from a sample, plus a prescription for more, Roberson says. The patient would drop off the prescription at one of the trailers and come back a day or two later to get it. "Patients would have minimal interruption in therapy," he says. "Most of the therapies were started right away."
If the pharmacies at the Convention Center did not have the drug, they faxed the prescriptions to area pharmacies. These pharmacies filled the prescriptions and then delivered them back to the convention center for patients to pick up.
By the end of the volunteer effort, almost 400 pharmacists and technicians offered free pharmacy services to Katrina victims. TPA coordinated pharmacy contacts into Baton Rouge as well.
Re-evaluating disaster plans
TPA already is revising its recommendations for pharmacy evacuations and preparedness in the wake of the Katrina devastation.
"We are in the process right now of putting together a checklist of what to do if you have to shut down your pharmacy and evacuate," Roberson says. "What documents do you take with you? What do you videotape, if you have enough warning to do that?"
In addition, pharmacists need to know how to reach staff after phone and electrical lines are down. "How do you re-establish communications so you can get help into the pharmacies that need it?"
Roberson is impressed that the state board re-evaluated its pharmacy rules and emergency amendments to meet the special needs of the hundreds of thousands of people evacuated to Texas.
Since many evacuees also were Medicaid patients, health officials also had to get information to pharmacies about how to sign up to be a Louisiana Medicaid provider. "Louisiana did a phenomenal job of expediting that application process," Roberson says. "Some pharmacies had their [Medicaid] numbers back within hours and were able to get their billings generated for Louisiana Medicaid." Now the discussion has turned to how to get the evacuees registered with the Texas Medicaid department.
Roberson says he applauds everyone in the relief process. "[They said], We need to take care of these people. If there are rules standing in the way, the rules are secondary to patient care.’"
He suggests pharmacists in areas susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes take a look at the lessons learned from Katrina — from their states’ perspective.
Review the pharmacy and medical regulations to make sure that therapy can be handled without interruptions, Roberson says. Plus get a working list of primary contacts of whom to reach if you need volunteers. This should include a list of hospital pharmacy directors and major chain directors in the large metropolitan areas.
"State associations should already have that type of list so it could get out quickly," he says.
Pharmacists in Texas thought they would have to travel to Louisiana to help Hurricane Katrina victims. Many didnt realize that evacuees would instead be coming to them testing current emergency plans and showing the gaps that need to be filled in responding to such a large natural disaster.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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