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Eyes of a Hurricane: The Effect of Hurricane Harvey on Ophthalmology Consultations at Houston’s County Hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2021

Jonathan A. Go ,
Maxwell Lee ,
Nicole L. Alexander ,
Mahmood Khan  and
Zaina Al-Mohtaseb
Jonathan A. Go
Affiliation:
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
Maxwell Lee
Affiliation:
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
Nicole L. Alexander
Affiliation:
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
Mahmood Khan
Affiliation:
Weill Cornell Medical College, Department of Ophthalmology, New York, NY, USA
Zaina Al-Mohtaseb*
Affiliation:
Cullen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA Department of Ophthalmology, Ben Taub General Hospital-Harris Health System, Houston, TX, USA
*
Corresponding author: Zaina Al-Mohtaseb, Email: Zaina@bcm.edu.
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Abstract

Objective:

This study aimed to characterize ophthalmology consultations ordered after Hurricane Harvey compared to consultations ordered during the same time period of the prior year.

Methods:

A retrospective chart review was performed at an urban, level 1 trauma center of a county hospital. All patients were included who received an electronic health record, documented ophthalmology consultation order between September 2017 and October 2017 (the time period immediately following Hurricane Harvey) or September 2016 and October 2016. Patient demographic risk factors were collected. Patient ICD10 clinical diagnoses were categorized as extraocular, intraocular, infectious, physiological, or other, and then subcategorized as trauma or non-trauma-related. A geographical heat map was generated to compare the changes in diagnosis volume by zip code to the magnitude of rainfall in the county.

Results:

Following Hurricane Harvey, ophthalmology consultation volume decreased, number of infectious ophthalmology diagnoses increased (P < 0.001), percentage of patients on immunosuppression increased (P < 0.001), and the number of private insurance payers increased while the number of county-funded insurance payers decreased (P = 0.003).

Conclusions:

The risk of infectious eye diagnosis was double the risk of traumatic eye diagnosis from Hurricane Harvey flooding. During public disaster planning, different ophthalmological medical resources and responses should be considered for flooding versus high-wind events.

Keywords

eyefloodhurricaneophthalmology
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e13
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

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