ARIZONA RESPONDS HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA

ARIZONA RESPONDSARIZONA RESPONDS

HURRICANESHURRICANESKATRINA AND RITAKATRINA AND RITA

Intake and DeploymentIntake and Deploymentandand

Volunteer ExperiencesVolunteer Experiences

Maricopa MRCMaricopa MRCMRC of Southern ArizonaMRC of Southern Arizona

Yavapai County MRCYavapai County MRC

Maricopa MRCMaricopa MRCKeith LansburyKeith Lansbury

Maricopa County

• 4th most populous county in the U.S.

• Population is 3.7 million (60% of state’s population)

• 14th largest county populous county in the U.S. (9,226 square miles)

• City of Phoenix is the 6th largest city in the U.S.

BACKGROUND

• Maricopa MRC (MMRC) organized in late 2002

• Originally sponsored by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, City of Chandler and the Volunteer Center of Maricopa County

• By 2005, only the Volunteer Center (VC) continued to provide direct support for the MRC:– Provided fiscal support for the original MRC 3-year

grant

– Provided a VISTA volunteer who began a one year service period in August 2005.

MARICOPA MRC BACKGROUND

• Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management provided a full-time Citizen Corps Coordinator who worked closely with the MMRC.

• Prior to September 2005, membership consisted of approximately 120 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and another 30 health professionals of various backgrounds,primarily nurses trained to support PODS.

• The Maricopa MRC was governed by an Executive Committee consisting of the MRC Chairperson, MRC Secretary, and the chairs of the different corps: Physician/PA, Nursing, Pharmacy, Mental Health, and Paramedic/EMT.

TWO-FOLD RESPONSE:LOCAL

• Supported state agencies in the staffing of a shelter at the local state fairgrounds for New Orleans evacuees

• Supported American Red Cross Disaster Nurses at same state shelter after the state health department closed the medical clinic at the fair grounds.

TWO-FOLDER RESPONSE: NATIONAL

• Coordinated with the American Red Cross Disaster Operations Center to staff ARC shelters in the affected states

• Coordinated with the Health & Human Services Emergency Operations Center to meet the local healthcare staffing needs in various cities.

LOCAL RESPONSE

• Hurricane Katrina was watched by the MMRC leadership with the thinking that, based on the MRC responses to the 2004 hurricanes, there might be a need for a few local MRC members to volunteer for deployment out of state.

• No local response was anticipated and a wait and see approach was taken in anticipation of a request to assist the National American Red Cross if needed.

LOCAL RESPONSE (cont.)

• On Monday, August 29, Hurricane Katrina makes second landfall in Louisiana and the levees in New Orleans are breached.

• Many citizens are trapped by the flood waters and evacuate to different locations. Rescues begin.


• On Thursday, September 1, evacuations from New Orleans begins.

• On Friday morning, September 2, State of Arizona receives notice of pending arrival of evacuees on Friday night or Saturday morning.

• State Health Department decides to set up two evacuee shelters, one at state fair grounds in Phoenix and one at convention center in Tucson.


• Arizona Department of Health Services is asked to set up a medical clinic to evaluate and manage evacuees medical problems.

• ADHS recruits teams of health professionals from local hospital emergency rooms to staff clinic.


• Two plane loads of evacuees are received in the first 36 hours. There are notifications of several other flights but all are canceled except one that goes directly to Tucson.

• By Monday morning, September 5, approximately 650 evacuees are housed in the indoor arena at the state fair grounds.


• A clinic pharmacy is established and staffed through a pharmacy service with a contract with the state for mental health services.

• ADHS utilizes an existing contract with a pharmacy chain store to provide prescription services for evacuees with a 2-week supply of medications.

• Evacuees’ medications are stored at the pharmacy where single doses are dispensed as needed throughout the day and evening.


• ADHS declined all help from the MMRC and wanted to rely solely on hospital personnel to staff the clinic and the pharmacy service for the clinic pharmacy.

• MRC received hundreds of telephone calls from health professionals wanting to help at clinic.

• Callers were encouraged to register at the Maricopa Citizen Corps website for possible future service.


• On Wednesday evening, September 7, the Chair of the MMRC visited clinic as part of a hospital team.

• He discovered that the pharmacy service had been desperately looking for pharmacists and technicians to help staff the clinic pharmacy for the past 48 hours.


• He also discovered that the ARC has set up its shelter services including a medical station staffed by ARC disaster nurses where over the counter medications are being given to evacuees under ARC medical protocols.

• There was no coordination between the ARC medical station and the ADHS medical clinic with evacuees receiving medications and medical advice from both service sites.


• On Thursday, September 8, the MMRC Pharmacy Corps began referring its members to a contracted staffing service used by the pharmacy service to help staff the clinic pharmacy.

• Over the next 10 days, eight pharmacists and technicians filled 12 hours shifts at the clinic pharmacy.

• Several MRC Nursing Corps nurses also volunteered to help the ARC disaster nurses in their duties covering ten 8-hour shifts.


• On Friday, September 16, the governor announced that the shelter will close the next day.

• The medical clinic and pharmacy ceased services on Saturday at noon.

• 100 evacuees were still located in the shelter.

• When the pharmacy closed, all medications were brought to ARC to continue dispensing to evacuees. ARC protocols prohibited such activities.


• On Saturday afternoon, the ARC disaster nurse coordinator contacted the chair of the MMRC asking for help.

• Beginning on Sunday, September 18, MRC members including pharmacists, nurses and physicians began staffing the ARC medical station and dispensing medications to evacuees.


• Over the next four days, the MRC staffed the medical station until Thursday, September 22, when all of the evacuees were placed in the community.

• During this same three week time period, hundreds more health professionals contacted the MMRC asking to help either at the fairgrounds in the disaster affected states.

NATIONAL RESPONSE

• During the first two weeks of the response to Katrina and Rita, the VISTA volunteer worked 138 hours, answering and returning telephone calls, helping with credentialing and answering an infinite number of questions.

• With the help of two MRC members who volunteered for 8 hours-a-day for 10 consecutive days, and several VC volunteers, the MMRC received more 24,500 calls.

NATIONAL RESPONSE (cont.)

• The call volume was the result of the MMRC being listed as the contact agency by the Arizona Republic and AZ211, the state-sponsored nonemergency information call center, for health professionals who wanted to participate in the local response to the hurricanes.

• MMRC membership grew over three weeks from 150 to approximately 800.


• During the months of September and October, the MMRC deployed 11 volunteers for two-week assignments for the ARC.

• During the same time period, 19 volunteers were credentialed and deployed to work in HHS designated healthcare facilities and services.


• Credentialing procedures for all volunteers remained the same as before the hurricanes but with a priority being given to those who completed the applications for service with the ARC and HHS.

• All deployed MMRC members who were deployed to the hurricane affected areas, were debriefed and offered mental health counseling if desired. All but one declined any follow counseling.


• At a regularly scheduled quarterly MMRC general membership meeting, several participants gave presentations on their experience.

• With the exception of one volunteer who turned out to be unable to work in the settings in which she was placed and was sent home early, all volunteers reported their service as life changing and a willingness to serve again the future.

LESSONS LEARNED

• Without prior planning, developing and delivering medical care to a large number of people is a challenging and difficult process.

• Based on their experience together at the state sponsored medical shelter, the local ARC chapter, the MMRC and the county emergency management agency, are developing a plan for a local medical special needs shelter.

LESSONS LEARNED (cont.)

• When a disaster is catastrophic and the needs for qualified healthcare professionals are high, preplanning must occur to process the large number of spontaneous volunteers that will be requested.

• This preplanning must include credentialing, identifying those who are willing to deploy either locally or nationally, determining minimum notification time for deployment and professional skills of each volunteer.


• Since hurricanes are annual events and the need to deploy for either ARC or HHS, may easily occur in coming years, MRCs would be wise to predetermine who in their organization will be responsible for the administrative aspects of such deployments and which members can be prequalified to go when the request is received.


Don’t Be Afraid, Be Prepared!

MRC of Southern ArizonaMRC of Southern ArizonaScott IngramScott Ingram

Using National Service Using National Service Members to Support Your Members to Support Your

Medical Reserve CorpsMedical Reserve Corps

Scott D. Ingram Director of Programs

BACKGROUND

• What is National Service? AmeriCorps? VISTA?

• Typically 15 – 20 National Service members are assigned to the Volunteer Center

Leading Youth Programs

Tutoring at-risk youth

Supporting Disaster Preparedness efforts

• All Volunteer Center members have been required to be certified by the Red Cross in Shelter Management, First Aid, and CPR since the Arizona’s devastating 2002 wildfire season All are enrolled as MRC Support Staff Two VISTA members are recipients of the Governor’s 2006 Volunteer Service Award

BACKGROUND (cont.)

Two AmeriCorps*VISTAs:

• Established a call center, recruited 10 volunteers to staff it and handled approximately 1500 calls over a three-week period

• Developed a process to record information on Spontaneous Unaffiliated Volunteers (SUV) and keep the “War Room” information updated

HURRICANE KATRINA

KATRINA (cont.)

• After landfall, shifted to mobilizing MRC members and intake of medical volunteers

• Created web pages with the latest information

• Created just-in-time training on the American Red Cross application and deployment process

• Processed 177 new MRC applications

• Deployed 16 including 4 AMC members, one veterinarian, several nurses and mental health counselors

• Developed notarized affidavits, a filing and tracking system, ID badges, and a screening process

• Created a survey of returning volunteers, and a arrange post deployment counseling through the local Victim Witness program

KATRINA (cont.)

THREE PRIMARY CHALLENGES

• Working within the Red Cross paradigm

• Updating and confirming credentials

• Debriefing volunteers

HOW TO CONNECT TONATIONAL SERVICE RESOURCES

• Partner with local agencies that have AmeriCorps and/or AmeriCorps*VISTA programs

• Connect with you State Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service

• Offer AmeriCorps members training and integrate them into your plans; even if they are not MRC members, they are a valuable resource

2003 – Health Department Homeland Security Corps2003 – Health Department Homeland Security Corps2004 – Yavapai County MRC2004 – Yavapai County MRC

850 Members850 Members Emergency responseEmergency response Training and exerciseTraining and exercise Routine public health servicesRoutine public health services

Surge capacity and regional deploymentSurge capacity and regional deployment

Yavapai County MRCYavapai County MRCBrian SupallaBrian Supalla

Aug. 28 –Aug. 28 – E-mail alert from MRC NationalE-mail alert from MRC NationalSept. 1 –Sept. 1 – ARC deployment applications rec’dARC deployment applications rec’d

E-mail to YCMRC membersE-mail to YCMRC membersPhone calls to members w/o e-mailPhone calls to members w/o e-mail

Sept. 2 –Sept. 2 – AZ-211 web site linksAZ-211 web site linksSept. 3 –Sept. 3 – Two processing stations openedTwo processing stations openedSept. 6 –Sept. 6 – Partnered with non-Yavapai health Partnered with non-Yavapai health departments having non-MRC volunteer corpsdepartments having non-MRC volunteer corps

INTAKE RESULTSINTAKE RESULTS

Sept 3: Sept 3: Sept 4-10:Sept 4-10:Sept 11-17: Sept 11-17: Sept 18-24: Sept 18-24: Sept 25-Oct 1: Sept 25-Oct 1:

24 (4 deployed in 72 hours)24 (4 deployed in 72 hours)28281616 9 9 2 279 (41 deployed)79 (41 deployed)

RECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITIESRECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITIES

• Local news releases and on-air interviews

• County Fair information booth

• Referrals from existing MRC volunteers

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCESVOLUNTEER EXPERIENCES

• Importance of personal preparedness

• Deployment (prep for TOPOFF 4 in 2007)

• Shelter care/Special needs populations

LESSONS-LEARNEDLESSONS-LEARNED

• Need call-down system

• Process more ID cards in advance

• Inform applicants of deployment status so notifications aren’t missed

CONTACT INFORMATIONCONTACT INFORMATIONMaricopa MRC: Richard ThomasMaricopa MRC: Richard Thomas

[email protected](602) 616-2327(602) 616-2327

MRC of Southern Arizona: Scott IngramMRC of Southern Arizona: Scott [email protected]

(520) 881-3300 x108(520) 881-3300 x108

Yavapai County MRC: Brian SupallaYavapai County MRC: Brian [email protected]

(928) 442-5485(928) 442-5485

mailto:[email protected]



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ARIZONA RESPONDS HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA