Three Hospitals Prepare to Send Team to Katrina

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 05, 2005
UIC News Bureau

CONTACT: Bill Burton, (312) 996-2269, burton@uic.edu

THREE HOSPITALS PREPARE TO SEND TEAM TO KATRINA

The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago has joined with Rush University Medical Center and the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County to assemble a medical team ready to staff a "pop-up" medical facility to aid Katrina survivors.

More than 400 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from the three hospitals gathered on Labor Day at Rush to register as volunteers and update their immunizations so that they might be deployed to the disaster area or an evacuation camp to staff a M*A*S*H-like medical facility.

"The U. of I., Rush and County have worked together for over a century, so we're a natural to come together in a situation like this," said Dr. Joseph Flaherty, dean of the UIC College of Medicine. "And it's extremely gratifying that we have hundreds of people volunteering to serve."

Among the volunteers were three physicians, two from Stroger and one from UIC, who already served when they were stranded in the disaster area.

"I'm trying to go back -- I felt a little guilty leaving," said Dr. Maximo Brito, UIC assistant professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist, who was attending a medical meeting in the French Quarter when the hurricane struck. He set up a triage center in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel lobby and treated patients for four days before being evacuated on Friday.

On Monday afternoon, Brito, along with Drs. Joe Pavoretti and Chad Zawick of Stroger, was busy giving media interviews as hundreds of colleagues rolled up their sleeves to receive tetanus and hepatitis-B vaccinations.

Brito, who is from the Dominican Republic and returns there regularly with UIC medical students, said the devastation wrought by a disaster is much worse than the everyday poverty he faced on previous medical missions.

"People are trapped, without food, without water, and it's hot," he said. "They get increasingly desperate."

Brito said it was fortunate that the hotel was also serving as a makeshift police headquarters. They escorted him to a nearby Walgreen's that had already been broken into and secured it while he gathered medical supplies. "Then they turned it back over to the people to ransack," he said.

A team of about 100 professionals will be selected from the volunteers once the assignment and deployment are known, explained Dr. Robert Simon, the founder and chairman of the International Medical Corps, a non-profit humanitarian organization, and the executive chairperson of emergency medicine for Rush and Stroger.

"The particular deployment will change the mix of professionals needed," Simon said. He also cautioned the group that a mix of duties would be required of each volunteer. "Doctors will at times function as nurses, orderlies or transporters," he said. "If you can't handle that, don't go."

The team, which could be selected and called up on a day's notice, would serve for up to two weeks, said Dr. Larry Goodman, president and CEO of Rush. The pop-up medical facilities will be involved rehydrating and triaging patients and providing emergency medical care, he said.

Sending dozens of staff out of state presents a challenge to the entire workforce of a hospital, according to Dr. William Chamberlin, medical director of UIC's medical center.

"The hospital will ensure that we continue to take the best care of our patients during this difficult time," Chamberlin said. "The people left back home will pull extra shifts to cover for their colleagues deployed to the disaster area."

UIC is actively involved and standing ready in other disaster relief efforts:

--Answering the call of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the campus has pledged to make room for up to 150 refugees in the Physical Education Building.

--Last week the medical center joined the efforts of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which is coordinating the transfer of complex and critical patients, and is standing by to receive patients.

--Last week seven staff instructors of the UIC Disaster Emergency Medicine Readiness Training Center deployed in support of Katrina rescue operations. Five center staff were dispatched to the field hospital at Baton Rouge, while two others are backfilling at Illinois locations to help free-up Illinois Medical Emergency Response Teams to go to the delta. The training center, headquartered at the UIC College of Dentistry, is also working in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Public Health and the American Medical Association's Center for Public Health Preparedness and Disaster Response to provide supplies, equipment and administrative support to the EMS professionals who have deployed in support of the disaster response.

--The UIC School of Public Health is working with the Association of Schools of Public Health to assist their colleagues at the Tulane University School of Public Health. UIC has offered to take Tulane students for the fall semester as "exchange students" and to open online courses to Tulane students. By Friday, two had enrolled. Longer term, the UIC School of Public Health has offered to help replace of books and journals and provide other assistance with getting the school back up and running.

--The University of Illinois announced Thursday that it will accommodate Illinois students who attend college in the devastated area and allow them to minimize the impact of the disaster on their education. Displaced students will be allowed to attend any one of the three U. of I. campuses for up to one year as non-degree students so that their educational plans can remain as close to on-track as possible.

At UIC, as of Friday, 100 undergraduate students had contacted the admissions office regarding special admission. Among the first 17 to enroll, 14 were African American and one was Native American.

Students may come in to the office, located in the Student Services Building, 1200 W. Harrison St., and fill out a non-degree student application on the spot. The application fee is waived. They will meet with a registration counselor and look for available space in the courses they need for their regular programs. Evidence of acceptance at an affected college is required. Tuition waivers will be decided on a case-by-case basis, and textbook vouchers are also available. Each student will be provided with a mentor.

The Counseling Center will provide immediate counseling for UIC students and will provide consultations to faculty, staff and students impacted in any way by the hurricane and its aftermath. The Counseling Center is located in the Student Services Building, Room 2010, phone (312) 996-3490.

- UIC -

NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign.

Associated File: None