incremental recovery

There is not a tremendous amount of "new" news since my last post. Incremental recovery efforts continue.

The FM residents are dispersed across the state and Linda and I are working on plans for block 5 now. We hope to have a little more than half to maybe 2/3 of the residents back to the Houston/Galveston area by the beginning of block 5. We are fortunate in that we've worked with a number of mainland community hospitals for certain core rotations for several years and they are up and running already and taking on additional residents beyond the usual numbers.

It looks like FM will be able to open one of our clinic sites in the next week or so and I hope to put some residents there for the outpatient FM core rotation in block 5.

This morning I read a news article stating that 75% of the island's housing is uninhabitable so I'm concerned that even once we're able to return, many of our patients simply will not be there. The ABFM is being flexible with us regarding continuity clinic requirements, but we will need to aggressively work towards recovery of our FMC even so. Dr. Thompson and others have this high on their priority list.

We're beginning to work on housing options for our residents whose housing is uninhabitable. This will be a significant challenge, given the widespread destruction of housing and very limited availability for the foreseeable future. We are exploring several different avenues as solutions.

No definite decisions regarding recruiting and the 2009 Match have yet been made. We WILL interview and recruit a class, although I'm not sure what size that class will be. I definitely plan to interview and recruit for our 2 PGY1 AOA positions and some ACGME positions as well, number to be determined. In all likelihood, we will not begin interviews until late October or early November. Stay tuned for further updates!

RTT article

An article about our Rural Training Track was published in this month's edition of Texas Medicine.

Block 4 assignments

All FM residents have now been reassigned for block 4 rotations. Early next week, Linda and I will begin working on block 5 assignments. We hope to begin bringing a few people back to the Galveston/Houston area. Primarily, this will be residents whose housing is habitable and on the mainland.

Generally speaking, recovery efforts on the island appear to running ahead of schedule, which is good news. I encourage you to keep up to date on the progress at the UTMB website, the Galveston Daily News, Channel 2 and KHOU. These are the most extensive coverage sites I have located and the ones I am personally following daily.

At present, it looks like we have about 6 to 8 residents whose housing on the island is definitely or likely not habitable upon return to the island. These will be the folks who are on displaced rotations longest. The Chiefs are busy compiling a list of residents and faculty who have space in their homes for temporary housing and we will coordinate that as it becomes feasible to bring people back to the local area.

All things considered, I'm feeling optimistic about recovery for the Family Medicine Program.

the scope of the problem

If you're wondering how big a job UTMB faces in terms of its medical students and residents, see the excerpt below. Full article here.

Campus officials say it could be a month or more before the hospital resumes regular operations and is able to bring all of its students and residents back. In the meantime, administrators are working on temporary placements for 557 medical residents and about 2,400 medical, nursing, allied-health, and graduate students. The hospital has about 12,000 employees, 8,000 of whom work in Galveston.

new office location, general update

After 22 hours traveling yesterday, I am now sitting in the fully equipped temporary FMR Administrative office at Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth. They have graciously agreed to house us for the immediate future, until we are able to return to the UTMB-Galveston campus.

Our new telephone number is 817-735-2737.

Almost all of the FM residents have new rotation assignments to begin on Monday in accordance with our usual rotation timeline. We should have that task completed by the end of the week so that everyone can be back to clinical work/education on Monday 9/22. It is anticipated that no one in the FMR will have a break in training.

Many, many thanks go out to FMR Program Directors across the great state of Texas, all who have volunteered rotations and many also housing for our residents. We are deeply grateful.

Applicants for the 2009 Match can expect an update regarding our status within the next two weeks, after we've been able to attend to the immediate needs of our current residents.

All FM residents and faculty are holding up well and making the best of a difficult situation. From my perspective, I feel a little bit guilty because although I'm displaced, the inside of my home is virtually untouched and will be easy to move back into. I am sitting in an air-conditioned office and am well-supported. I have electricity and internet access and I can buy gas without waiting in line for 90 minutes. When I turn on the tap, water comes out and I took a wonderful shower this morning. My kids, pets and I are safe and healthy and housed with family. All things considered, I have much to be thankful for.

communications

UTMB email system is operational again, so we will resume using that as our primary communication venue.Updates will be posted here from time to time, but please communicate with me by email from now.

housing/rotations

I heard from Donna just a little bit ago. UTMB medical personnel are being relieved by a military medical unit. Donna has also been in contact with Adriana.

I understand from the two of them that there are a number of residents who are in hotels and need to be relocated. I'm not having much luck reaching people by cell phone, so please post a comment here and let me know if you are in housing where you can remain for potentially 2 to 4 weeks or if you need to be relocated. Linda and I will be working to make arrangements starting tomorrow.

Everyone try to be patient. Hang in there and call either Linda or me if you don't hear from us in the next 48 hours. Meantime, leave a comment here and let me know your housing status/needs.

Press conference

The mayor says there is no water, no gas, no electricity and no communications. No time estimate about restoration.

Governer Perry says DO NOT make any effort to return to the island until further notice.

City Manager LeBlanc says UTMB is first on the list for restoration of services and the timeline is 1 week.

Search and rescue is the immediate concern and all efforts directed towards that until this has been completed. As of last night, they had completed to 11 mile road. Current info is that 3 bodies have been found.

For the residents - my plan is to have everyone sit tight for the remainder of this week. If we do not have information regarding imminent re-entry to the island towards the end of the week, I will locate alternate assignments for you all, hopefully in the areas where you are currently evacuated to. It will be important to begin bringing people back to the island as it is re-opened because we will need to be available as recovery begins. Some of the recovery work will be dependent upon availability of medical services when needed so we need to be there to do our part.

Stay tuned.

anyone checking here?

Residents & Faculty: please post a comment if you are checking this blog! It only just occurred to me to try to communicate with everyone this way. The UTMB alert website is up but minimal information is being posted there. I have not been able to log in to the email system to try to reach everyone that way.

As I'm sure you know, very little information is coming from the island. Our faculty and staff who stayed on the island are all safe as far as I know. I've heard directly from or about Dr. Thompson, Dr. Simmons, Dr. Yadiki and Becky.

The best source of information that I've located is KHOU. They are broadcasting on DirectTV channel 361 non-stop. Their website is also being updated regularly. They just posted an important update. The mayor is supposed to hold a press conference at 1pm. Residency staff and I will be making another round of telephone calls to update everyone, but the latest I've heard to this point is that it will be AT LEAST Tuesday or Wednesday before the island is re-opened. IMO, that may be an optimistic timeline. Everyone please just stay put where you are for the immediate future and await further instructions.