Hospital ERs Are Unprepared for Terror Attack

[maddezmom]

Source: ABC

The nation's emergency rooms and hospitals are still, nearly seven years after Sept. 11, not prepared to deal with the "surge" of patients that could be caused by a terror attack, according to a House oversight committee.

What's worse is that it's a situation that could be compounded, hospital officials from both coasts and a state disaster planner said today, if the Bush administration is able to take hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding from public and teaching hospitals.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the changes the Bush administration is trying to make in the way the government reimburses state and local governments for the services provided by public and teaching hospitals could be "disastrous" to the nation's preparedness for a terror attack and called them an abdication of responsibility.

Waxman's oversight committee conducted a survey of 34 hospitals on March 25 and found that not one was prepared at that moment on that day for a terror attack.

"The situation in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles was particularly dire. There was no available space in the emergency rooms at the main trauma centers serving Washington, D.C. One emergency room was operating at over 200 percent of capacity: more than half the patients receiving emergency care in the hospital had been diverted to hallways and waiting rooms for treatment. And in Los Angeles, three of the five Level I trauma centers were so overcrowded that they went 'on diversion,' which means they closed their doors to new patients. If a terrorist attack had occurred in Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles on March 25 when we did our survey, the consequences could have been catastrophic. The emergency care systems were stretched to the breaking point and had no capacity to respond to a
surge of victims".

Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4790620&page=1

[Avalux]

1. They aren't even prepared for daily trauma events.

There's no way they could handle a terror attack or a pandemic disease outbreak. People would be turned away.

[lovuian]

3. Exactly

this is all the governments doing Nobody would leave hospitals without being connected and owned by the State

Understand these hospitals are companies

in a disaster profit kinda goes out the window

[htuttle]

19. I was just going to say -- most big city hospitals can hardly handle Saturday Nights

Mostly due to lack of resources.

[Clear Blue Sky]

2. We never learn.

Is NOLA prepared for another big hurricane? Other coastal cities?

[coriolis]

4. Not possible to be 100% "prepared" whatever the hell that means.

What's the solution? ... build hospitals with enough beds for the entire population of the cities? Half the population?
And who would the caregivers be? (and where?)

[Indenturedebtor]

5. Seriously... this is an issue?

They can't deal with the common cold at this point... what the hell are they supposed to do?

But I guess this could be another piece of the "socializing medicine puzzle". It really does effect everything in society, this whole pesky cumbersome health thing. I mean who would have thought that being alive is so important to living and paying taxes and stuff :shrug: Kinda crazy when you think about it :sarcasm:

[kestrel91316]

6. Potential terrorist attacks are the least of our crumbling healthcare

system's concerns. Or should be.

[Aragorn]

7. Did anyone survey how NYC hospitals did on 9-11?

I agree that it is not possible to be "completely prepared" and this article doesn't even try to define what they surveyed. But lack of universal health care does send uninsured to ERs.

Loss of Medicaid funding does effect this. But trauma centers are staffed as low as possible, otherwise they have to pay a lot of people with nothing to do all day.

I have told patients sarcastically for many months that as long as people are well enough to pay taxes this government sees the situation as OK.

[noonwitch]

20. They didn't get very many patients on 9-11

People either got out or they didn't.

The news media was standing by at the hospitals in NYC on 9-11. There weren't many injured people to be brought there-people either got out or died, for the most part.

[Nay]

8. They SHOULDN'T be "prepared for a terror attack" -- for every

hospital to be prepared for that is a total waste of time and money. What we NEED is a federal government with planes, supplies and doctors ready to go to any site and set up hospitals, triage units, and ALLOW IN all the other helpers (Red Cross, Canadian docs, Medecins sans Frontieres, etc.) with NO hassle and red tape. In other words, we need the feds to 1) give a flying shit and 2) have some plan to fly in the supplies and manpower they already can command.

Jesus. What idiocy. They're worried about the wrong thing. They should be worried about providing health services to the regular population when they need it, whether they have insurance or not. Why is it important that Jane Doe be treated for injuries received from being in a bombed building, but Joe Smith, because he doesn't have insurance, gets to die of his pneumonia? Asinine.

[hedgehog]

9. Last I heard, the Federal government response to a possible flu

pandemic amounted to suggesting that local authorities set up some sort of plan. No advice, guidance or financial assistance, of course!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

11. We put together a plan for our county.

The CDC is coming week after next for three days of training. The guidance from the feds was pretty good actually. I guess it depends on your local health department as to how far along they are.

David

[hedgehog]

12. That's somewhat reassuring. I'm concerned because a lot of the

items that would be needed such as masks, gloves, IV set-ups etc. would be in short supply but I don't see how hospitals could stock them ahead of time due to the cost.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

14. We've been stocking the stuff that doesn't expire for 3 years now.

We have huge rooms full of that stuff. IV solution will be a big problem because it expires so quickly. I can't say where you live but at least our county health people and our ems people are very on top of things. You could probably call the health department and ask to come to some of the meetings they may be open to the public. They may wants some concerned members of the public at the meetings.

David

[snot]

10. isn't the risk of terrorist attacks just about the least of our real worries?

i mean, statistically, i believe the odds are v. low as compared to others.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. GOOD! Maybe they're devoting resources to shit that's actually plausible

I am currently unprepared for massive flooding in northwest Chicago.

The important question is: so the fuck what??? It ain't gonna flood in Ravenswood, kids. And I live on the third fucking floor.

[nwliberalkiwi]

15. No Hospitals

Bushco wants to cut Medicare---take a close look at the hospital near you. How much of your local hospital budget is supported by Medicare. Turn the lights out and let Grandma die in the gutter!!!!!! Welcome to Faith Based Healthcare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Turbineguy]

16. The free market

will fix this.

OK, this might be needed::sarcasm:

[FlaGranny]

17. Every hospital I've ever worked in

has had a disaster plan and they run periodic drills to make sure their plans are adequate. No one hospital would be able to handle a large disaster, but there are regional plans for that. If the disaster were huge, I doubt hospitals and ERs COULD be prepared - that would require a national preparedness.

[nichomachus]

18. This is silly. They don't need to be prepared.

Since most of us will need "pre-authorization" from our HMOs in order to be treated, the HMOs will simply delay that until most of us are dead. The ERs won't see any increase in patients.

[Hannah Bell]

21. Why are they floating this story now? Nothing new...

Fear, fear...