A Strategic Look at the Federal Medical Response to Disasters

Abstract

Abstract : The federal government has taken on an increased role in preparing for and responding to natural or man-made disasters in the United States, both by strengthening state and local capabilities and through the deployment of its own resources. A key federal program for responding to the health and medical consequences of disaster is the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), which has a mission of medical response to supplement state and local healthcare resources, evacuation of patients from the disaster area, and the provision of definitive care hospital beds to care for victims. In 2005, the federal government mounted a huge disaster relief response for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This paper examines the part that NDMS and other federal programs had in the medical relief for those storms, and the subsequent changes that were prompted by perceived inadequacies in the federal disaster response effort, including transferred leadership of NDMS to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the reaffirmation of the HHS Secretary's role to lead all federal public health and medical response to emergencies. Recommendations are made to make HHS more capable of leading this response, and to improve the effectiveness of NDMS.