Boosting disaster response: Be prepared

AMA delegates call for state and local disaster preparedness plans and removal of barriers blocking physicians from volunteering in response efforts.

Editorial. Dec. 12, 2005.

Even life's most painful ordeals hold lessons for us. On Aug. 29 Hurricane Katrina slammed the nation's Gulf Coast, leaving behind a shattered infrastructure, tragic loss of life, pollution, disease and emotional and sometimes physical scars on the survivors.

Our instinct is to look ahead, to focus on healing, and rightly so. But a look back is equally necessary. Katrina pointed out gaps in the nation's disaster preparedness that lingered even after a concerted effort following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster the nation's ability to respond to calamities, both natural and man-made.

The storm made clear that much more still needs to be done to completely integrate the public health community, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, police, firefighters, emergency medical service providers and hospitals into a cohesive disaster response system. Physicians gathered at last month's AMA Interim Meeting in Dallas took that lesson to heart and made plans to do something about it.

Delegates passed a measure aimed at improving planning and getting physicians involved in disaster preparedness. The resolution calls on the AMA to press each state and local public health jurisdiction to develop and keep up to date a comprehensive disaster plan that fits their community's needs. The roadmap should take into account special populations, such as children and the disabled; prepare for the anticipated public health needs of people in hospitals and other institutions; address the coordination and assignment of volunteer physicians; and be filed with the appropriate federal agencies.