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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 12, 2001 		Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343

HHS DEPLOYS NEW DISASTER MEDICAL TEAMS TO HOUSTON

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today prepared to send additional emergency medical resources to Houston, where hospital capacity has been severely reduced by Tropical Storm Allison. Physicians, nurses and other medical specialists have been sent to Houston from around the country as part of HHS' medical disaster response system, and more are now needed to bolster the compromised medical care system there, Thompson said.

"This storm has inflicted an unusual level of damage on the central medical infrastructure in the area," Thompson said. "With a substantial part of Houston's hospital capacity now out of service, the city needs more help to provide medical response for its citizens. This means treating not only storm-related injuries, but providing the kind of day-to-day medical response that would normally be provided by hospitals that are now closed or running at reduced capacity."

About 150 personnel from HHS-sponsored Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) had been dispatched to Houston earlier. This included teams from New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas, supplemented by medical personnel from DMATs within Texas.

In addition, Thompson said, Houston needs more than 100 more nurses and other personnel including respiratory therapists. The new personnel would make care available in two existing critical care units and a new temporary acute care unit. The additional personnel will be identified through the National Disaster Medical System, led by HHS, and assigned to Houston as long as needed.

Hospitals at the Texas Medical Center and elsewhere throughout the metropolitan area have been shut down or curtailed by flooding. Hospitals that have remained open are generally running on backup electrical power, without air conditioning, and with compromised water supplies. Some 1,700 hospital patients have been relocated due to hospital shutdowns and other problems.

HHS disaster teams have been providing care at the Astrodome, the Houston Police Academy and the Harris County Community Center. A new temporary 25-bed unit will be added at the Astrodome.

Thompson praised those willing to serve on the disaster teams, as well as other medical professionals who help fill in for those deployed away from home in the DMATs. "Through our network, we are able to concentrate assistance where it's needed, but all these efforts depend on the willingness of physicians, nurses and others to give their time, training and talents at a moment's notice, and the nation owes them its thanks," Thompson said.

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