Hurricane Harvey made landfall in southeast Texas in August 2017, causing unprecedented flooding throughout the Texas coastal region. Residents of affected regions were forced to evacuate to nearby unaffected areas, including Dallas, TX, where a large shelter operation was opened for 23 days to care for those evacuees. Retrospective evaluation of pharmaceutical prescribing patterns for the evacuees who self-presented to the Megashelter Medical Clinic (MMC) established in the shelter contributes to developing evidence-based planning strategies for healthcare delivery in the post-disaster setting.

To describe the pharmacy needs of a displaced population following a large-scale evacuation after a hurricane

De-identified prescription records written and filled at a shelter pharmacy were reviewed, looking at both cost and category of medications dispensed over time.

Approximately 41% of evacuees with a total of 2,654 visits utilized the MMC clinic, resulting in 1,590 prescriptions filled with an associated cost of $78,039. The most commonly prescribed drug categories were cardiovascular (21.2%), neuropsychotropic (15.6%), infectious disease (12.5%), and endocrine (9.6%). While the most commonly dispensed were antihypertensives, diabetes treatment-related prescriptions, antibacterials, antidepressants, and NSAIDs, the costliest individual prescriptions were antiretrovirals and antipsychotics.

Prescribing patterns for the MMC differed from normal prescribing patterns of a general population. Of the prescriptions dispensed at the MMC, pharmaceutical prescription patterns suggest the immediate needs of evacuees differ from later needs. There is a greater need for chronic disease management in the early phase of shelter operations, and an increasing need for neuropsychotropic and infectious disease prescriptions over time. Understanding overall patterns of drug utilization over the duration of the shelter provides valuable insight on post-disaster medical resource utilization in evacuee populations.

After Hurricane Harvey and the flooding that ensued, 3,829 displaced persons were transported from their homes and sheltered in the Dallas Convention Center. This large general population sheltering operation was medically supported by the onsite Mega-Shelter Medical Clinic (MMC). In an altered standard of care environment, a number of multi-disciplinary medical services were provided including emergent management, acute pediatric and adult care, psychiatric/behavioral services, onsite pharmaceutical, and durable medical equipment distribution, epidemiologic surveillance, and select laboratory services.

To describe how onsite medical care in the adapted environment of a large population shelter can provide comparable services and limit the direct impact on the local medical community.

A retrospective chart review of medical records was generated for all clinical encounters at the MMC. Data were sorted by daily census, disease surveillance, medical decision making, treatment, and transport destinations.

40.7% of registered evacuees utilized the MMC accounting for a total of 2,654 clinic visits by 1,560 unique patients representing all age groups. During the sustained MMC operations, 8% of patients required emergency transport and 500 additional patient transports were arranged for clinic appointments. No deaths occurred and no iatrogenic morbidity was reported.

Medical care was provided for a large number of evacuees which mitigated the potential impact on the local medical infrastructure. The provision of medical services in a large population shelter may necessitate adaptation to the standard of care. However, despite the nontraditional clinical setting, care delivery was not compromised.

The Dallas Convention Center received over 3800 evacuees because of the unprecedented flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. A multidisciplinary medical clinic was established onsite to address evacuee needs for medical evaluations, emergency care, chronic disease management, pharmaceuticals, durable medical equipment, and local health services integration. To operate efficiently, the Dallas Mega-Shelter Emergency Operations Center (EOC) worked with the Mega-Shelter Medical Clinic (MMC) under a fluid incident command (IC) structure that was National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliant. Iterations of MMC IC demonstrated maturations in organizational structure while supporting MMC operations that varied from rigid NIMS doctrine.

To explore the use of a fluid IC structure at a large evacuation medical shelter after Hurricane Harvey.

We observed evolutions of IC organizational charts and operational impacts.

Modifications through just-in-time iterations of the IC organizational chart were posted and reviewed with MMC IC and EOC sector chiefs. Changes in the organizational chart were noted to improve identification of logistical needs, supply delivery, coordinate with other agencies, and to make decisions for resource typing and personnel utilization. Adaptations also improved communication, which led to timely situational awareness and reporting accuracy.

MMC medical services were improved by allowing modifications and adaptations to NIMS compliant MMC IC organizational roles and duty assignments. The fluidity of IC structure with ability for just-in-time modifications directly impacted the provision of disaster medical services. Unique situational awareness, coordination of care pathways within the local innate health infrastructure, compliance with health service regulations, and personnel resource typing all contributed to and benefitted from these IC modifications. MMC and EOC IC collaboration facilitated effective communication and maintained an appropriate span of control and efficient activity reporting.

Residency education delivery in the United States has migrated from conventional lectures to alternative educational models that include mini-lectures, small group, and learner lead discussions. As training programs struggle with mandated hours of content, prehospital (EMS) and disaster medicine are given limited focus. While the need for prehospital and disaster medicine education in emergency training is understood, no standard curriculum delivery has been proposed and little research has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of any particular model.

To demonstrate a four-hour multi-modal curriculum that includes lecture based discussions and small group exercises, culminating in an interactive multidisciplinary competition that integrates the previously taught information.

EMS and disaster faculty were surveyed on the previous disaster and prehospital educational day experiences to evaluate course content, level of engagement, and participation by faculty. Based on this feedback, the EMS/Disaster divisions developed a schedule for the four hour EMS and Disaster Day that incorporated vital concepts while addressing the pitfalls previously identified. Sessions included traditional lectures, question and answer sessions, small group exercises, and a tabletop competition. Structured similarly to a strategy board game, the tabletop exercise challenged residents to take into account both medical and ethical considerations during a traditional triage exercise.

Compared to past reviews by emergency medical faculty, residents, and medical students, there was a precipitous increase in satisfaction scores on the part of all participants.

This curriculum deviates from the conventional education model and has been successfully implemented at our 3-year residency program of 66 residents. This EMS and Disaster Day promotes active learning, resident and faculty participation, and retention of important concepts while also fostering relationships between disaster managers and the Department of Emergency Medicine.

In the United States, over 50% of people have at least one chronic medical condition, access, or functional limitation. In 2017 during Hurricane Harvey, the establishment of a comprehensive multidisciplinary onsite medical clinic provided health and medical services to over 3,800 evacuees at the Dallas Mega Shelter, providing large-scale general population sheltering support to all evacuees and prioritizing family unit integrity by meeting physical, sensory, and cognitive limitations, and chronic medical conditions. The effectiveness of the Dallas Mega Shelter onsite medical operations supporting this aim is reviewed.

To utilize onsite health and medical resources to meet access and functional needs of evacuees seeking general population mass sheltering in Dallas, Texas during Hurricane Harvey.

Observational.

Over 3,800 evacuees were evaluated for functional needs support services (FNSS) resulting in over 2,500 evacuee patient encounters during 21 continuous days of onsite health and medical clinic operations.1 A comprehensive array of services were available at no cost to the evacuees and were in accordance with the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) published Guidance on Planning for Integration of Functional Needs Support Service in General Population Shelters.2 The goal to maintain nearly all evacuees choosing to stay in the Mega Shelter was achieved. The challenges, limitations, and risks identified are reviewed.

FNSS guidelines require all persons, regardless of limitations, when evacuated from home be provided all services necessary to allow them to remain in general population sheltering.2 This prioritization of personal choice, functional independence, and family integrity for those with comprehensive FNSS requirements presented notable challenges, including public health and safety risks impacting the wellbeing of others. Meeting these expectations must be balanced with maintaining shelter integrity.

To investigate the relative importance of 10 attributes identified in prior studies as essential for effective disaster medical responders and leaders.

Emergency and disaster medical response personnel (N=220) ranked 10 categories of disaster worker attributes in order of their importance in contributing to the effectiveness of disaster responders and leaders.

Attributes of disaster medical leaders and responders were rank ordered, and the rankings differed for leaders and responders. For leaders, problem-solving/decision-making and communication skills were the highest ranked, whereas teamwork/interpersonal skills and calm/cool were the highest ranked for responders.

The 10 previously identified attributes of effective disaster medical responders and leaders include personal characteristics and general skills in addition to knowledge of incident command and disaster medicine. The differences in rank orders of attributes for leaders and responders suggest that when applying these attributes in personnel recruitment, selection, and training, the proper emphasis and priority given to each attribute may vary by role. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:700–703)

To identify key attributes of effective disaster/mass casualty first responders and leaders, thereby informing the ongoing development of a capable disaster health workforce.

We surveyed emergency response practitioners attending a conference session, the EMS State of the Science: A Gathering of Eagles. We used open-ended questions to ask participants to describe key characteristics of successful disaster/mass casualty first responders and leaders.

Of the 140 session attendees, 132 (94%) participated in the survey. All responses were categorized by using a previously developed framework. The most frequently mentioned characteristics were related to incident command/disaster knowledge, teamwork/interpersonal skills, performing one’s role, and cognitive abilities. Other identified characteristics were related to communication skills, adaptability/flexibility, problem solving/decision-making, staying calm and cool under stress, personal character, and overall knowledge.

The survey findings support our prior focus group conclusion that important characteristics of disaster responders and leaders are not limited to the knowledge and skills typically included in disaster training. Further research should examine the extent to which these characteristics are consistently associated with actual effective performance of disaster response personnel and determine how best to incorporate these attributes into competency models, processes, and tools for the development of an effective disaster response workforce. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;page 1 of 4)