For Health Care Providers

On September 1, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., requested that the AAMC organize an emergency conference call with all U.S. medical school deans to mount a coordinated response from the NIH and academic medicine addressing the health care needs of patients affected by Hurricane Katrina.

NIH Effort and Liaisons

The NIH has established a Hurricane Katrina response Web site, and will serve as the federal government's link with academic medicine. Dr. Zerhouni asked each dean to establish a Hurricane Katrina response unit within their faculty and to appoint one contact person to serve as that institution's liaison with the NIH. The AAMC has acted to coordinate communications between these institutional response units and the NIH.

• See the medical schools that have appointed a response unit.


• For more information on this effort, contact nihliaisons@aamc.org.


• See more information on the NIH response to Hurricane Katrina.


• Read the NIH Hurricane Katrina Action Plan.

Hospitals

The AAMC has worked with the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Catholic Health Association of the U.S., the Federation of American Hospitals, the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, Premier, Inc., VHA Inc., and other state and national hospital associations to coordinate medical relief efforts with the federal government.

The AHA has established a centralized Web site for hospital relief efforts. This site contains information about how hospitals can volunteer to help the relief effort, and it will serve as a central communications link between the need for and availability of hospital resources.

• Read the Memorandum from the Department of Health and Human Services: "HIPAA Privacy and Disclosures in Emergency Situations."


• Read a notice from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding relaxed operating procedures for documentation, eligibility, and payment.

KatrinaHealth.org

The Markle Foundation has announced a new Web resource, KatrinaHealth.org, a free and secure online service that can connect Katrina evacuees, doctors, and pharmacists with information about the prescription drugs evacuees from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were taking before they were forced to flee their homes. This site was built with the support of several federal agencies, national organizations, and IT companies. Licensed physicians interested in the site’s free and secure Hurricane Relief Prescription Network may sign up by calling the American Medical Association’s Unified Service Center at 1-800-262-3211.