President's Page

President's Page
November 2006

Disaster Preparedness—
Through the eyes of a physician and tourist

by David M. Bookout, MD
2006 DCMS President

On a recent vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, my wife, Betty, and I experienced the preparation for a hurricane and its emotional impact. Once we determined that no flights were available so we could escape the storm, we prepared for the worst. I thought of the stranded tourists in the Cancun area last year, their trials and tribulations. Would I be a stranded tourist, and, if so, would I be able to function as a physician and assist in caring for the natives or other tourists? After waiting for the storm, I could empathize more with the residents of New Orleans and Houston, and their reluctance to leave their homes and property before the hurricanes hit last year.

At Cabo San Lucas, as the bands preceding the storm came with the high winds and rain, the occupants of the resort withdrew into the safety of their units, emerging after each band passed and the sun returned. They believed they could survive this, there was no need to worry, it was going to miss them, or it wouldn’t be that bad. Luckily for us, the storm turned eastward in the last few hours and, even though the damage was significant, it primarily was in thinly populated areas.

The experience led me again to question how prepared Dallas is for another disaster. As we learned from last year’s hurricanes, a community must be prepared to care for evacuees from other communities. Our experience demonstrated the inadequacy of a plan that involves only hospitals and their plans for their physicians. People were transferred to the hospitals when they didn’t need to be, and some were not transferred who should have been. Although the majority of patients did not need hospitalization, their medical needs were significant, and the physician community responded admirably.

Today disaster preparations are much more complete and involve collaboration among county and city governments, public health departments, the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, and DCMS. The Dallas County Medical Reserve Corps has designed and designated the Dallas Medical Operation Center to be the organization to respond in an emergency. A DCMS representative will be at the DMOC to determine the physician needs and ensure that the proper physicians are dispatched to the sites.

Seven sites have been designated and each would require 15–20 physicians. The hospital representative on the committee would be responsible for equipping the sites and responding to special supply requests.

We are working with John Carlo, MD, MSE, Dallas County Medical Director/ Health Authority, and he is enthusiastic about the progress and cooperation exhibited by all parties. The issue of transportation of evacuees has not been resolved, but the patient care aspect definitely has progressed. I hope we will not have an opportunity to test the system in the near future. The system is important even outside of hurricane season; it should be appropriate for other disasters that do not involve transporting patients or hospitalization, such as a pandemic.

As DCMS members, we should be pleased that we are involved in making the medical community more effective in case of an emergency.

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