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Mon Sep 15 02:16:48 BST 2008

I live in Houston, with our own challenges.   I do not live in  Galveston and 
am aware of UTMB's people who stayed on the island.   I  know from the EOC 
people from Galveston, that the triage needs ON THE ISLAND are  not very great 
right now and what you propose simply is not a very large  job.   Following 
SAR, they can, as many have been taken to either UTMB  or to the mainland.     If 
the DMAT team now in  Galveston did not coordinate with the UTMB burn and 
trauma program, then neither  the DMAT team nor the Galveston or State people 
understand how patients are  treated.       I happen to know that both the  State 
and at least one of the several silos in Galveston did talk with the UTMB  
people.      AND in addition, we have received some  patients from Galveston 
Island the last 30 hours and we looked at their records  very carefully.    NO 
notes accompanied patients from Galveston  Island from any DMAT team.    NO 
phone calls came from a DMAT  team.   The SAR people who accompanied the patients 
said nothing,  NOTHING of a DMAT team that either they knew about or were 
involved in the SAR,  and some of the patients had major injuries.      

My friend,  your post below has very graphically underscored and  emphasized 
the communication and silo problem inherent in the NDMS, and DMAT  programs in 
this country.    I am NOT against the availability of  such programs, it can 
just be structured and coordinated much  better.       As you recall, many 
persons who have  posted e-mails have made similar suggestions.      

It is time that we simply stop all of these silos and do what is best for  
the patients.   

k

In a message dated 9/14/2008 8:02:41 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
jssdoc2000 at yahoo.com writes:

Are your faculty not busy enough taking care of the  extensive patient volume 
you already have.  Do you have enough  personnel to augment the entire 
hospital in Galveston?  As I said  earlier today, the DMAT's will not keep patients 
at their  facility.  They will act as a triage site and transfer patients who  
need surgery, inpatient care, etc. to hospitals such as yours.  I  think if 
you read the material sent by one of the other members of the  list that 
explains what DMAT's do, it will make more sense.  I am a  little confused by the 
defensive nature of having help sent your  way.  And I am not trying to cause a 
huge debate on the  listserv.  But as a person involved with disaster response 
and  planning, it is difficult to just sit back and listen to something that  
is worked on daily in preparation for a disaster be bashed  continuously.  I 
think that the frustration should be placed more  on the local command 
requesting assets that you feel that you don't  need, rather than the DMAT personnel 
themselves.  You have 2 DMAT's  that are based in your area, one in Houston 
and one in Galveston.   So I would suspect that some physicians within your 
hospital are on  these teams.  If the DMAT team would be assisting your hospital,  
they would be coordinating with you. They are made up of  people such as 
yourself, that want to help in time of need.  The  teams just go where they are 
told to go, but they do help and certainly  never want to frustrate local 
physicians.

--- On Sun, 9/14/08,  KMATTOX at aol.com <KMATTOX at aol.com> wrote:

From:  KMATTOX at aol.com <KMATTOX at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [CCM-L]  MEDICAL RESPONSE TO DISASTERS, incl DMAT, NDMS, etc
To:  jssdoc2000 at yahoo.com, ccm-l at ccm-l.org
Date: Sunday, September 14,  2008, 7:53 PM

Was this Galveston DMAT activity coordinated with the extensive  faculty of 
UTMB one of the major Level I trauma Centers in the South  East Texas area.  ?  
   I think NOT

k

In a message dated 9/14/2008 7:45:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
jssdoc2000 at yahoo.com writes:

Galveston did not.  The main hospital there is not  completely functional and 
a DMAT (my DMAT team) has basically  replaced the hospital for the time being 
per request of the local  

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[CCM-L] MEDICAL RESPONSE TO DISASTERS, incl DMAT, NDMS, etc