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Hurricane
Katrina Call to Action
The Operation Blessing Clinic has extended the dates for volunteers
through July 2007. If you are able to volunteer for one week or
even a few days, please respond to this email and we will get you
in touch with the clinic director. As well, please forward this
email to anyone who you think may be able to volunteer. JHI has
partnered with Operation Blessing and together we are committed
to providing relief for individuals in need. We hope you will be
able to join the effort.
Attached is a brief overview which provides more detailed information.
Thank you in advance.
Jewish Healthcare International
Needed:
Physicians, Nurses and Dentists for medical relief work in New Orleans
When: |
December 1-14, 2006 |
and |
January - July
2007 |
Jewish Healthcare International has been asked by
Operation Blessing to recruit physicians, nurses and dentists to
volunteer their skills at the Free Medical Clinic in New Orleans
for a few days or a week from December 1-14, 2006 and January 2007.
Medical services are provided by volunteer professionals
from around the United States. There is on-site private lodging
for volunteer providers. Continuity clinic staffing includes a volunteer
family practice physician, Dr. Dale Betterton, a volunteer nurse
practitioner, and a paid staff licensed practical nurse. An adjacent
drug dispensary is staffed with pharmacy technicians paid through
the State of Louisiana.
The patients are 95 percent Black, 95 percent adult
- most newly impoverished, formerly middle-class white collar resident
who are trying to return to the area. The prevalence of disease
is about 50 percent HTN, 25 percent DM, 50 percent mental health
(depression, PTSD)/substance (mostly alcohol). Local hospitals are
available to take unstable patients, but the wait in the ER for
non-urgent care can be 24 hours, so patients avoid going there unless
they are desperately ill.
Patients line up outside the Free Clinic starting around 2 a.m.,
the gates open around 6:30 a.m., and intake/triage begins. Providers
start seeing patients around 9 a.m., and many providers will see
about 80 ambulatory patients in an average day (M-F). About 25 patients
are turned away each day. Providers must be self-sufficient, able
to take blood pressure, start IVs and other tasks normally done
by support personnel.
To give staff vacations, the Clinic will be closed
from December 15, 2006 to January 3, 2007. The administrator is
"scrambling" for providers for the first two weeks of
December 2006. Volunteer doctors, nurses, physicians' assistants,
and nurse practitioners are also urgently needed at all times throughout
2007.
The administrator for the clinic is Thomas Koehl.
He can be contacted at thomas.koehl@gmail.com,
and he is willing to answer questions and provide logistical support
for volunteers. Applications for temporary 90-day credentials can
be made through the International Medical Alliance website: http://www.imaonline.org.
The state of Louisiana recently passed legislation strengthening
the Good Samaritan law for emergency workers, so volunteers are
not liable except in cases of gross negligence.
Volunteers will need to arrange for and pay their
own transportation to New Orleans (e.g. airfare to Louis Armstrong
airport).
For more information please call Jessie Rosenberg
at 678-222-3702 Monday – Friday 10:00 – 1:00pm or by
email at jkaminsky@jfga.org
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