This provides the most up-to-date information that I could get from AHA, HHS and from Wisconsin's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) staff. Instructions are given for registering both TEAMS of 10 or more, and INDIVIDUALS who volunteer from hospital settings. If you have supplies to donate, please continue to register those donations at www.hospitalreliefefforts.org. AHA sends WHA a list every day of the supplies and personnel who have registered with hospitalreliefefforts.org so we know what is available and we share that information with the EOC here in case they receive a request that a Wisconsin hospital can fill. At the end of this email, I provide some information on what I think WHA's role will be going forward from here.
I know you have been patiently waiting to see how your contributions of personnel and supplies can best be made available to the gulf states. The confusion that has surrounded the relief effort seems to be starting to lift. Late on Sseptember 13, Commander Tom Hendricks from the Department of Health and Human Services called me to ask if we can register our TEAMS with the HHS relief effort to begin processing the individuals on the team for possible deployment to the Gulf States. Please note, he was not able to give me a date, time or place they would be deployed. However, he did advise me that they would be needed either "within the next few weeks or months."
Here is what I need you to do to register a TEAM (defined as 10 or more medical professionals that want to be deployed together --HHS favors this arrangement since it enables them to register and move people in a unit): (Individual registration instructions follow the team instructions)
To Register Your Team:
1. Go to www.hhs.gov
2. Click on HURRICANE KATRINA on the right hand side of the page.
3. Under "What HHS is Doing" - Scroll down until you see Health Care Professionals and Relief Personnel, click on it
4. Once you are on the Health Care Professionals and Relief Personnel page, scroll down and click on Special Instructions for Group Volunteers.
5. Once you are on the "The Special Instructions for Group Volunteers" (it looks like a Q&A page), click on the Hurricane Help link that is located under the word, "answer."
This will take you to an EMAIL form, with the Subject line stating, "Katrina Group." In that email, which goes directly to HHS, provide the following information:
You will be contacted by the HHS Group representative regarding your group's assignment.
(You do not need to submit a form on the volunteer.hhs.gov site if you are requesting to deploy together as a group.)
Once you have registered your TEAM of 10 or more medical professionals on this Web site, the HHS will contact your TEAM LEADER directly if/when your TEAM is to be deployed. Once they receive your list, they will begin processing them and they will become "federalized" for purposes of volunteering in the Gulf States. Malpractice and liability, while acting within the scope of your federal employment (volunteering), is covered under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
If your TEAM members have questions about who to take or what to expect, send them to this link provided on the HHS web site: http://www.cdc.gov/travel/other/hurricane/hurricane_relief_workers.htm
To Register Individuals (fewer than 10 medical professionals):
The Wisconsin State Emergency Operations Center is now operating. This means that all the agencies, both governmental and private, that are part of any response to an emergency are in frequent communication and are working together to fulfill any requests for aid, of any kind, that may come from the Gulf States. For individuals who wish to volunteer their services, register with the Wisconsin Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry (WEAVR). WEAVR collects and stores contact information on volunteers interested in filling critical response and recovery roles following a major public health emergency. Based on the information collected from each volunteer, public health officials will be able to use WEAVR to identify individuals willing to fill specific volunteer roles determined to be needed either in the Gulf States or here in Wisconsin as evacuees are received into the state. Public health officials use the WEAVR registry to generate a list of volunteers who will be contacted based on the information they provided.
To register on WEAVR, if you have not already done so, go to: /http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/preparedness/weavr/
Your medical volunteers might also want to register with the Red Cross: www.redcross.org
WHA's Role from Here Forward
I have been in contact with HHS, DHFS and with the State through all the confusion in figuring how what agency was doing what, and how medical volunteers could best connect with agencies that could use their skills in the Gulf States. When the evacuees arrived in Milwaukee, Bill Bazan worked with the Public Health Department, DHFS, and the Milwaukee health systems to provide needed care for these folks. Bill will continue with that role. George Quinn will continue to monitor communications from CMS, DHFS, and other sources regarding reimbursement issues and will share that information through this listserve. I am in daily communication with Larry Reed, the director of the State Emergency Management Office, as all requests for assistance come through him to the EOC. He knows that WHA hospitals have to offer and knows he can access their personnel and supplies by sending a request to me. At this time, Larry emphasized they have not received any requests for help.
HHS is pleased that we have medical teams already organized, and Commander Tom Hendricks from HHS advised me to have all our teams register with HHS, using the system I mention above. He will then be able to contact a team directly without going through me (WHA), and they can begin processing the medical volunteers from Wisconsin for possible deployment to the Gulf States. He had no timeline, other than to to say help will be needed for many months as the area, and health care systems down there, rebuild.
If you have hospital employees who would like to volunteer to help either in the Gulf Coast or here in Wisconsin, please forward them this information.
The generousity of your hospitals and employees is overwhelming. I just hope they have an opportunity to share their skills with those who need them in the Gulf States. I would suggest keeping the names/skills/emergency contact numbers of the employees who volunteered, along with the Team leader's information. I know many of you spent a lot of time collecting and organizing this information. While we all hope we will never need to call upon these resources, it's good to know where they are when needed.
If you have questions, call me at 608-274-1820 or email mgrasmick@wha.org
Mary Kay Grasmick
WHA
608-274-1820