ithin days following the devastation caused by Hurricane
Katrina last August and September, then ASA President
Eugene P. Sinclair, M.D., appointed a Task Force
on Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief. The members
of the task force included Chair Charles W. Otto,
M.D., members Jill A. Antoine M.D., Jay S. DeVore,
M.D., Orin F. Guidry, M.D., Robert E. Johnstone,
M.D., William D. Owens, M.D., Keith J. Ruskin, M.D.,
Jeffrey J. Saadi, M.D., and George J. Sheplock,
M.D., with assistance from ASA Assistant Executive
Director Denise M. Jones, Director of Governmental
Affairs and General Counsel Ronald Szabat, J.D.,
LL.M., Director of Finance Richard E. Barwacz, Director
of Information Services Janice L. Plack and Director
of Communications Gina A. Steiner.
Goals of the Task Force
The task force was charged with:
• Determining how ASA could help the victims
of this disaster and assist other organizations
providing medical care to these victims;
• Exploring options for involving ASA members
in hands-on disaster relief efforts; and
• Overseeing the creation and management
of an ASA-sanctioned disaster relief fund.
Working with the Anesthesia Foundation, Dr. Sinclair
established a nonprofit, charitable Anesthesia Foundation-ASA
Disaster Relief Fund for collecting and redistributing
funds from members, industry and other interested
parties using as an initial donation of approximately
$30,000 collected from voluntary contributions originally
planned for the ASA centennial celebration.
Assisting Members With Relief Efforts
The task force quickly established two priorities:
to provide information to our members interested
in helping with the relief efforts and to promote
the Anesthesia Foundation-ASA Disaster Relief Fund.
Even as the task force was getting organized, ASA
was providing information to its members via group
e-mails and postings on the ASA Web site. In the
weeks following the disaster, ASA continued to inform
the members regarding the medical relief effort
and how to volunteer with the primary agencies that
were coordinating the relief effort. A number of
individual ASA members were part of federal disaster
relief teams and provided first-hand accounts of
the devastation in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.
As the task force began discussions, it was obvious
that many well-organized agencies were actively
involved in helping the disaster victims. Organizationally
the focus of ASA needed to be on providing information
and encouraging our members to contribute in whatever
way they could. ASA’s efforts would be focused
specifically on anesthesia-related needs with the
priorities being 1) anesthesiology educational needs,
2) aid to community/public domain anesthesiology
departments and 3) help for anesthesiology teaching
departments. Utilizing the ASA Web site, information
regarding reciprocal licensure for both volunteers
and displaced physicians was posted, and the job
placement service on the Web site was publicized
as a resource.
Hurricane Katrina demonstrated ASA’s limitations
in being able to respond to a disaster of this magnitude.
The Committee on Trauma and Emergency Preparedness
is studying ASA’s preparedness and what the
organization can do in the future 1) to aid members
who wish to volunteer to help relief efforts and
2) to provide assistance to anesthesiology departments
to return to functional operation following a disaster.
Help for Displaced Residents
Hurricane Katrina disrupted two anesthesiology training
programs in New Orleans: Tulane University and the
Ochsner Clinic. Fortunately the Ochsner Clinic was
minimally damaged by the disaster and was one of
the only medical facilities in New Orleans that
remained in operation. Consequently the residency
program remained open but most of the residents
lost part or all of their homes and personal belongings.
Tulane University Hospital was completely closed,
and residents were displaced from their training
in addition to losing homes and personal possessions.
Immediately following the disaster, the Anesthesia
Foundation, with the backing of Dr. Sinclair, stepped
in to provide financial assistance to the affected
residents. All residents who sustained losses were
offered $2,500 one-time grants upon evidence of
substantial loss, and 47 such grants totaling $117,500
were paid. In addition residents were offered up
to an additional $3,500 in low-interest loans, repayable
after completion of residency. Sixteen such loans
totaling $56,000 were approved, and a total of $173,500
has been disbursed from the reserve funds of the
Anesthesia Foundation for resident assistance.
In addition to the personal losses, 30 residents
from Tulane had their anesthesiology residency training
disrupted. How to deal with the sudden closure of
an entire residency program had not been anticipated.
Fortunately, thanks to the cooperation of residency
programs in Houston, Texas, all residents from the
Tulane program were offered positions in Houston
to continue their training until such time as the
Tulane program is able to resume normal function.
Although this emergency was dealt with successfully
on an ad hoc basis, the Committee on Academic Anesthesiology
is working with other organizations involved in
residency training to develop a plan for assisting
residents in continuing their anesthesiology training
in the event of disruption by a disaster.
Anesthesia Foundation-ASA Hurricane Katrina
Disaster Relief Fund
The Anesthesia Foundation-ASA Disaster Relief Fund
was established by Dr. Sinclair at the same time
as the task force. Through the fund, members, industry
and other interested parties could contribute specifically
to the Anesthesia Foundation Resident Relief program,
to other specific relief agencies or to an unrestricted
fund. The Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund
was publicized through blast e-mails to members,
on the ASA Web site and in a special President’s
Update distributed to all members. In addition
a booth was set up at the 2005 Annual Meeting in
Atlanta to collect contributions for the fund.
The largess of our members was truly gratifying.
In just a few months, the fund collected more than
$300,000 in contributions. As contributions
waned, the task force recommended and the Administrative
Council agreed to distribute the monies that were
designated to go to specific agencies before the
end of 2005. Educational need was the first priority
established by the task force for the relief effort,
and the amount expended by the Anesthesia Foundation
for grants and loans to residents exceeds $170,000.
Therefore the task force, with agreement of the
Administrative Council, has recommended that the
remaining unrestricted funds be transferred to the
Anesthesia Foundation to offset the money spent
for resident relief. This recommendation will be
considered by the Board of Directors in March.
We would like to thank the many members and other
individuals who contributed to the Anesthesia Foundation-ASA
Disaster Relief Fund. Their
names are listed in the accompanying box.
The relief effort to restore the Gulf Coast to normal
will be a continuing project for many years. The
task force urges our members to continue their generous
support with monetary and personal contributions
to agencies involved in the long-term relief effort.
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Charles
W. Otto, M.D., is Professor of Anesthesiology,
University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson,
Arizona. |
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