Now downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Irma is blowing out of Florida this afternoon after forcing at least 30 hospitals, 278 assisted living facilities, 61 nursing homes, and some 60 other healthcare facilities to evacuate some or all of their patients, according to state authorities.
It’s theoretically possible the number of evacuations in Florida could creep up even as Irma is entering southern Georgia. Any facility in a power outage zone that switched to a backup electric generator is vulnerable to a fuel shortage, or a mechanical breakdown.
Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up its efforts to help clinicians and hospitals care for patients in the aftermath of Irma. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense have started to evacuate patients on dialysis by air from the badly battered island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands to San Juan, Puerto Rico, HHS announced over the weekend.
Records indicate that 130 Americans in St Thomas are on dialysis. HHS personnel have joined urban search and rescue teams to find patients in this group who did not respond to warnings to leave the island before Irma hit. Their job is made harder by hurricane damage, including impassable roads and downed cell towers and telephone lines.
“Our medical personnel and our agency partners are working as quickly as possible under grueling conditions to assist the territory in its lifesaving efforts,” said Robert Kadlec, MD, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response, in a news release.
A similar mission is underway in Florida, where public health agencies are attempting to reach Medicare patients who rely on electrically powered medical equipment ranging from wheelchairs to oxygen concentrators in their homes. Many of them face a “life and death situation,” said HHS, given that roughly 6.5 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power as of noon today. Medicare billing records provide a way to identify patients with critical home medical equipment, and HHS has passed that data on to Florida officials to help in their outreach efforts.
HHS has deployed roughly 550 personnel to Florida in response to Irma, and another 100 to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
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