1. Regional Coordinating Center for Hurricane Response - Linking Lessons Learned to Policy and Practice Options
Ayanna V. Buckner, MD, MPH
Community Liaison
Regional Coordinating Center for Hurricane Response
National Center for Primary Care

2. RCC Purpose To mobilize the combined resources of:
NIH-funded Centers of Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (EXPORT Centers) and
Affiliated academic health centers
to mitigate the Public Health Emergency Impact of
Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters on high
disparity populations in the Southeast and South
Central regions of the United States, as well as, other
Centers of Excellence in those states the Secretary
has identified as Public Health Emergency States.
In October 2005, MSM was funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health and the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities to coordinate the work of all the academic Centers of Excellence on Health Disparities in our region to rebuild and enhance the healthcare infrastructure in the Gulf Coast States affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The purpose of our project, known as the Regional Coordinating Center for Hurricane Response (or RCC) is to mobilize the combined resources of academic EXPORT Centers to mitigate the Public Health emergency impact of Hurricanes and other natural disasters on high disparity populations in the Southeast and South Central regions of the US, specifically, this project has focused on the Gulf Coasts states of LA, MS, AL, TX and FL.

3. RCC Targets Balanced Healthcare Strategic Response Infrastructure
Information Technology
Telemedicine
Telemedicine: focus on tele mental health. Our aim is to develop and test reproducible models of telemedical response to natural disasters.
Screening and surveillance: to monitor health needs of evacuees and those who return to communities as they are re-built, with a focus on exacerbations of existing health disparities.
Research: To establish an effective communications and strategic response infrastructure to connect EXPORT Centers in our region with front-line CHCs and other essential PCPs in affected areas.
IT: EHR, PHR, and CCR. Focus on getting EHRs into CHCs and private practices that lost medical records and getting PHRs into the hands of individuals. We have had discussions with our EXPORT partners around taking these components to the next level, working to develop a CCR.
Balanced Healthcare: To develop models of a balanced community health system by establishing local and regional partnerships between public health programs, PCPs, hospitals, pharmacies, local business partners, etc. to ensure that every person in the community has access to resources for healthy living, as well as, comprehensive and culturally competent/appropriate care.
Research Network
Community-based
screening and surveillance

4. Patients arrived as early as 10:30pm.
Health Recovery Week (February 6-12, 2006) was an overwhelming success. $1.2 million in services were provided. Nearly 1,600 tooth extractions, and more than 2,000 dental fillings. More than 1400 people received optical treatment and screening, and more than 1300 received prescription glasses.
On the first day of the event, people start lining up outside the zoo entrance at 5:30 a.m. By 9 a.m., the line snaked through the parking lot to Magazine Street -- a distance of more than a city block -- and by 10 a.m., organizers had to close the line to newcomers.

5. New Orleans Health Recovery Week
February 6-12, 2006
Audubon Zoo, New Orleans, Louisiana
Sponsored by the New Orleans Health
Department, the RCC, and Remote Area Medical, Inc.

6. New Orleans Health Recovery Week
$1.2 million in services were provided.
>6000 participants and >18,500 encounters
3250 dental encounters with nearly 1,600 tooth extractions and more than 2,000 dental fillings
More than 1700 people received optical screening, and more than 1300 received prescription glasses.
4500 personal health records were created.

10. Katrina Phoenix: Access to Patient Information - From Soggy to Secure
Relief for year one on healthcare IT infrastructure
System is implemented in the Northstar network
Provider can select electronic medical record/practice management solutions (Companion, Misys, Allscripts, SOAPWare)

11. Katrina Phoenix: Access to Patient Information - From Soggy to Secure
Electronic medical record/ practice management license provided by project donation or one of their choice
$7,200/year ongoing cost after year 1

12. Personal Health Records
OurHealthMinistry.com with Universal Patient Record Information System (UPRIS)

13. Policy Implications
Should the government finance or merely regulate the health care industry's switch to electronic records?
If the government bankrolls the upgrade, what form of financial assistance should clinicians receive?
Direct Grants?
Incentives?
How should the government handle security concerns regarding electronic records and the rules governing access to them?

14. Acknowledgements and Contacts
The RCC project is made possible through grants from the following:
US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health with support from the National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation