Abstract
When a hurricane or other major disaster strikes, emergency planners will be looking for civilian pharmacists to help with recovery efforts. “One of the professional positions that we had the most challenge in filling in the Gulf area during [hurricanes] Katrina and Rita was pharmacist positions,” said William Drake, chief pharmacist for the Michigan-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT). DMATs, which operate under the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), are groups of civilian health care providers that are sent to disaster sites to serve as rapid-response units. During his seven-week deployment to the Gulf Coast in the 2005 hurricane season, Drake led NDMS’s pharmacy response, working to get medications to where they were needed. Drake urged pharmacists to volunteer with their area DMAT unit. “NDMS is constantly trying to recruit additional pharmacy people,” Drake said. “Providing drug information, clinical therapeutic interchange advice, management of adverse reactions and side effects, toxicology, [and] poison management is a substantial need in disaster response medicine.”
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