Public Healthcare Response & Hurricane Katrina



Public Healthcare Response & Hurricane Katrina

Introduction

Katrina was a powerful and the most destructive hurricane that have taken lives of thousands of people and resulted in mass destruction. It is considered to be among the five most destructive and devastating hurricanes of all times that have ever hit the United States. The cost of response and rehabilitation processes made it one of the costliest hurricanes in the history. Initially, Katrina caused severe damage and loss of lives in southern Florida where it was measured to be as a category 1 hurricane on the scale of Saffir- Simpson. The hurricane Katrina leads its way to the Gulf of Mexico and strikes it with a greater intensity that was measured to be on the category 5 on the Saffir- Simpson scale of hurricane. The hurricane Katrina became weakened till it reached the northern Gulf coast where it was considered to be in category 3 hurricane. The deadly hurricane was able to take lives of a large number of people living in Mississippi and Louisiana. There was a severe destruction due to hurricane Katrina in other parts of United States including Alabama, Florida and Georgia (Knabb et al., 2005). There were several response organizations that tried to prevent the amount of losses of lives and property.

This paper discusses the response of emergency services in the discipline of public healthcare during and after the hurricane Katrina. It analyzes the issues in response and the emergency service sectors. The paper identifies the deficiencies in the planning, policies and response operations related to public healthcare during and after the happening of the event of hurricane Katrina. Recommendations based on the identified deficiencies are also provided in the paper.

Overview of the Issue

The response related to public healthcare made the state medical response services to review and revise their plans and strategies of emergency response discipline of public healthcare after the happening of devastating hurricane Katrina. The medical infrastructure, systems and processes were failed during the response actions to hurricane Katrina. There were many questions and issues that arise after the hurricane Katrina that addressed the health and medical care providers and responders to revise their normal operations and develop an optimum strategy for devastating natural disasters like hurricane Katrina (Easley, 2006). It has been observed that during the response time, there was a lack of initial interfacing on the management level that was suppose of provide healthcare facilities and prevent the epidemic of diseases (Davis, 2006). There were a less number of knowledgeable and experienced medical service providers, local emergency medical and health are providers and public health officials designated by the state to the affected cities and states. The delay in the response from state public health care providers affected several people who required emergency healthcare. The American Red cross was suppose to come earlier at the time of incident but a delay in their arrival lead to the disturbance in the response cycle. It affected the evacuation process of ...