ADHS News Release:
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After Successfully Treating Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees, Health Department Closes Clinic |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –
September 16, 2005
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Michael Murphy, ADHS Public Information (602) 542-1094
Mary Ehlert, ADHS Public Information: (602) 364-1201; (602) 721-0532 |
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After providing more than 1,176 office visits to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, the Arizona Department of Health Services’ clinic at the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum will close Saturday.
The clinic has operated around the clock for 15 days, providing medical care to shelter residents and transporting 91 evacuees to local hospitals.
“This is an unprecedented success,” ADHS Director Susan Gerard said. “We set up a full service triage center and began seeing patients there within 24 hours. Our team saw a need and we responded. Because of the excellent staff and the resilience of the evacuees, all of the major medical needs of the evacuees were able to be met.”
The clinic was set up by the Health Department on Sept. 2 with the help of many first responders including several fire departments. It was managed by ADHS with doctors and nurses from more than 20 local hospitals that volunteered their services, working in 12-hour shifts.
“We’ve met the acute medical needs of the evacuees and can comfortably shut down the on-site clinic,” State Epidemiologist David Engelthaler said. “Thankfully there were no deaths or outbreaks identified, even though many of the evacuees came in with serious and potentially life-threatening health conditions.”
An American Red Cross first aid station remains available for evacuee’s minor medical needs until the Coliseum closes. Further, the Health Department and Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System are planning a health fair for evacuees in mid-October to help put Arizona’s new residents in touch with more permanent primary care providers.
“We would like to thank all the fire departments, hospitals, doctors and nurses, Health Department staff, and really all the people that helped make the clinic successful. We have spent a great deal of time over the past several years preparing for emergencies in Arizona. Through our preparedness efforts we have developed great relationships with the first responder and medical communities – and that really made it easier for us all to pull together to meet the medical needs of evacuees.”
In addition to its integral role at Arizona’s evacuee shelter, ADHS has also prepared teams that remain on stand-by to be deployed to the Gulf Coast region.
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