PROFESSIONDelegates urge more effective use of doctors in disaster responseThe AMA will ask state and local public health agencies to work with physicians on readiness.By Kevin B. O'Reilly, amednews staff. Nov. 28, 2005. Dallas -- With the inadequate local, state and federal response to Hurricane Katrina in the rearview mirror, the AMA House of Delegates reaffirmed its commitment to put physicians at the center of disaster preparedness planning and to make it easier for them to volunteer after catastrophe strikes. The AMA will focus its disaster preparedness improvements on four key areas: coordination, training, licensure and medical liability. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the American Medical Association formed the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Disaster Response, but the delegates' reaction to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has added an extra push. "This gives us clear-cut direction," said AMA Trustee William A. Hazel Jr., MD, a Herndon, Va., orthopedic surgeon. "We have been treating it as a priority, and the house has really reinforced that it's not only a priority but a barn-burner, urgent priority. ... We have significantly geared the AMA to be a center of public health preparedness and disaster response." As delegates focused on improving the public health response in disaster zones, AMA President J. Edward Hill, MD, reminded the house, during its opening session, that times of crisis awaken "the soul of medicine." "Every patient I saw said those in the clinic were the kindest people they had ever met," said Dr. Hill, who volunteered at a Tupelo, Miss., clinic after Hurricane Katrina. "That, more than faulty payment systems or a broken liability system or the pressures from underwriters and Washington over pay-for-performance ... is the real calling of medicine." [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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