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County Establishes Resource Site For Survivors

By Terri Rimmer

Dallas County in Texas has formed a website for Hurricane Rita victims to access agencies and other information.

The North Texas Hurricane Rita Shelter Resources Page at dallascounty.org/rita also enables shelters to register their facility online and supplies public health guidance documents for evacuation places. Prevention of and response to gastrointestinal diseases outbreaks for evacuation shelters, plan for prevention of and response to respiratory disease outbreaks at the same areas, and an environmental health division evacuation shelter assessment form is offered available on the site.

Public health resources of Tarrant, Dallas, Collin, Denton, and Louisiana Health Departments are also listed as well as the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation.

There is also an area to make suggestions for the website and a data collection instruments area for medical services, a Homes/Parkland form, and for ER services provided to victims. They all require authentication.

Health care services include for the DFW Hospital Council, Physician Resources, Credentialing Medical Volunteers, Texas Board of Nurse Examiners, and the Board of Medical Examiners.

Doctors who wish to volunteer to work with Hurricane Rita victims may email Gail Love at gayle.love@texmed.org. Dr. David Brailer, national coordinator for Health Information Technology was working with the American Medical Association and numerous other groups to expand Katrinahealth.org to provide doctors access to prescription records of patients displaced by Hurricane Rita before the storm hit. Doctors are instructed to refer to the Association Council for Graduate Medical Colleges’ web site for information on residency issues that Rita might impact and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s site for information on arrangements for medical students at school that might be affected and on how those schools will handle residency applications. Links to both those sites are available on dallascounty.org/rita.

On Sept. 22nd Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center announced the temporary closing that day through Sept. 24th of all mobile blood drives and Neighborhood Donor Centers in anticipation of Hurricane Rita. Kelsey-Seybold Clinic locations were closed Friday through Sunday as was Baylor College of Medicine. Texas Woman’s University was also closed all weekend.

The Texas Department of Insurance issued eight bulletins regarding insurance coverage and the hurricane and the City of Galveston issued a Declaration of Emergency and Humana allowed early refills on member prescriptions.

The Texas Department of State Health Services established a toll-free hotline for family members to call to locate hospital and nursing home patients evacuated by the facility because of the hurricane. People within Texas may call 1-877-623-6274 24 hours a day. Callers need the name, date of birth, and gender of the patient.

The Dallas County Health and Human Services Department is located at 2377 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas. The phone number is 214-819-2115.

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