Are you ready for Hurricane Season? Do you have a plan? For End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients, these questions are particularly important. In order to ensure that dialysis providers and community stakeholders are planning for the unique needs of dialysis patients, the Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition is planning collaborative disaster preparedness meetings in Duval and Orange counties (dates to be announced).
These meetings will be attended by dialysis providers, emergency management officials and other community stakeholders involved in disaster preparedness and response. As with Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, we expect these meetings to create a learning environment for all those who attend, open lines of communication between providers and emergency management officials, and identify gaps in current disaster preparedness plans. Are you a provider in Orange or Duval county?
Contact the FKDC if you would like more information, would like to be involved in the planning, or would like to attend the meeting, please email FKDC at fkdc@nw7.esrd.net
Have you thought about pandemic prepardness? Or did the bird flu fly right out of your mind when the news coverage ended? Pandemic preparedness is especially critical for dialysis patients. As of now, the key responses for an outbreak of avian flu include: isolate, quarantine, stay home.... not very realistic for ESRD patients. Dialysis patients cannot "just stay home."
“The conversation about individual preparedness for pandemic flu must extend nationwide through all possible channels, including social media and the Internet,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said recently.
Additionally, anyone concerned about pandemic flu is encouraged to be more involved. There are several pandemic preparedness meetings happening in Florida. The Florida Hospital Association, in conjunction with the American Red Cross®, Roche, and the University of Florida School of Public Health, has designed a workshop that brings together hospital stakeholders from across the state to discuss the challenging issues of planning for an influenza pandemic. This State of Florida Working Session on Healthcare Pandemic Planning will be held on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at the Emergency Operations Center in Winter Park, Florida. The Hernando County Health Department will also be holding a Pandemic Flu exercise on June 28.
For more information, please visit http://www.dstftraining.net/uploads/Hernando_Pan_Flu_Ex.pdfIf you want more information on pandemic preparedness, check out this website:http://www.pandemictoolkit.com/
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Local dialysis patients learn what to do In threat of hurricane (Liz Freeman, naplesnews.com)
Local dialysis patients learn what to do in threat of hurricane
NaplesNews.com story by Liz Freeman, Friday, June 8, 2007
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jun/08/local_dialysis_patients_learn_what_do_threat_hurri/?breaking_news
Sophia Hadley doesn’t fret about how she would get her dialysis treatment if all hell breaks loose with a hurricane striking Southwest Florida.
That’s because the 36-year-old is a patient at Naples Artificial Kidney Center, 3699 Airport-Pulling Road N., where the center’s social worker sits down with each patient before the June 1 start of hurricane season. The social worker goes over a detailed pre- and post-storm response plan, to assure patients that they will not go without their lifesaving dialysis, necessary three times a week.
“When hurricane season comes, they give us a list of things we need, they give us ideas of what we should eat and a list of the medicines and list with our (treatment) type,” said Hadley, who has been on dialysis 12 years.
Owned by the national company, Fresenius Medical Care North America, the Naples center and its other Southwest Florida affiliates have revamped their disaster plans since Hurricane Katrina, aiming to address the needs of both patients and employees so their dialysis operations can carry on.
A national competitor in the region, DaVita Inc., which has dialysis centers in Fort Myers and Naples, similarly has detailed hurricane plans.
The Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition has focused on developing a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan to address the needs of the 26,000 Floridians with kidney failure who require dialysis, said Sarah Knott, head social worker for Fresenius at the company’s office in Tampa. Knott previously worked in the company’s Southwest Florida clinics.
“The Kidney Disaster Coalition is to make sure all units, not just Fresenius, are prepared for hurricanes,” she said.
Besides the one-on-one sessions with each patient, Fresenius operates a toll-free number that is staffed 12 hours a day so patients and members of their families can locate a dialysis center near their place of evacuation and will make arrangements with the alternative site.
If a patient plans to go to a special-needs shelter, the clinics will register their patients with Collier County Emergency Management for the special-needs shelter, she said.
Before any of the dialysis centers shut down while a storm approaches, every patient undergoes a session, even if it is not his or her regular dialysis day.“So everyone is in good shape,” Knott said.
The centers don’t arrange for transportation but will coordinate transportation through the county for those who don’t have the means to get to a center after a storm. That was the case for some patients after Hurricane Wilma hit southern Collier County on Oct. 24, 2005.
“After Wilma, (the county) was very good about it,” she said. “They brought the patients to dialysis.”
In Fort Lauderdale, the Fresenius-owned Florida Kidney Center was the only dialysis center operational after Wilma in the region, taking in individuals from dialysis clinics run by other companies, she said.
All Fresenius-owned centers have generators that kick in when the electricity goes out and all have arrangements for water tank trucks to come on site and connect to a center’s water treatment system, said Todd Parker, the company’s regional technical manager for North Florida.
“We ran that way for a week right after Wilma at the Naples Artificial Kidney Center,” Knott said. “We took care of some patients from Clewiston and Belle Glade.”
Each generator runs $60,000 to $90,000 and each water hook-up system for the trucked-in tanks runs $500, Parker said.
In addition, the company has a logistics center at a warehouse with supplies and six recreational vehicles that can be sent to hurricane-damaged communities to house clinic employees whose homes have been damaged, he said.
“Previously we have put them right on the site (of the clinics),” Parker said of the RVs. “So we can take care of our own. Our focus is to get as much ready for recovery to create a little command center.”
DaVita Inc., which has five clinics in Fort Myers and one in Naples, likewise enhanced its hurricane plans after Katrina, said David McKenzie, a division vice president at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.
“We have a little over 100 dialysis centers in the state of Florida,” he said.All patients are educated about the plan before the storm and all are given a wrist band with a toll-free number to call to get help and find out the nearest center that is open, he said. Patients are encouraged to evacuate if they can.
The larger clinics have permanent generators and there are 15 generators that can be trucked in to smaller clinics that have lost power, he said. The company has arrangements for water to be brought in but that hasn’t been a problem during the past storms in Florida.
“During a disaster, we literally take in all-comers — we don’t care where they come from,” he said. “Billing is not relevant at that time.”
Hadley, the Naples resident who is a patient at Fresenius-owned Naples Artificial Kidney Center, remembers her experience before and after Wilma. She didn’t evacuate and stayed in her Golden Gate home.
She received a dialysis session on Sunday, the day before Wilma made landfall, and had her next dialysis on Wednesday. By then, the center was off its generator and back on normal power.
“They assured us everything would be OK and prepared us,” she said. “I felt confident.”
She feels the same going into hurricane season now.
“Oh yes, I’m confident nothing will happen without reason,” she said. “I’m prepared.”
NaplesNews.com story by Liz Freeman, Friday, June 8, 2007
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jun/08/local_dialysis_patients_learn_what_do_threat_hurri/?breaking_news
Sophia Hadley doesn’t fret about how she would get her dialysis treatment if all hell breaks loose with a hurricane striking Southwest Florida.
That’s because the 36-year-old is a patient at Naples Artificial Kidney Center, 3699 Airport-Pulling Road N., where the center’s social worker sits down with each patient before the June 1 start of hurricane season. The social worker goes over a detailed pre- and post-storm response plan, to assure patients that they will not go without their lifesaving dialysis, necessary three times a week.
“When hurricane season comes, they give us a list of things we need, they give us ideas of what we should eat and a list of the medicines and list with our (treatment) type,” said Hadley, who has been on dialysis 12 years.
Owned by the national company, Fresenius Medical Care North America, the Naples center and its other Southwest Florida affiliates have revamped their disaster plans since Hurricane Katrina, aiming to address the needs of both patients and employees so their dialysis operations can carry on.
A national competitor in the region, DaVita Inc., which has dialysis centers in Fort Myers and Naples, similarly has detailed hurricane plans.
The Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition has focused on developing a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan to address the needs of the 26,000 Floridians with kidney failure who require dialysis, said Sarah Knott, head social worker for Fresenius at the company’s office in Tampa. Knott previously worked in the company’s Southwest Florida clinics.
“The Kidney Disaster Coalition is to make sure all units, not just Fresenius, are prepared for hurricanes,” she said.
Besides the one-on-one sessions with each patient, Fresenius operates a toll-free number that is staffed 12 hours a day so patients and members of their families can locate a dialysis center near their place of evacuation and will make arrangements with the alternative site.
If a patient plans to go to a special-needs shelter, the clinics will register their patients with Collier County Emergency Management for the special-needs shelter, she said.
Before any of the dialysis centers shut down while a storm approaches, every patient undergoes a session, even if it is not his or her regular dialysis day.“So everyone is in good shape,” Knott said.
The centers don’t arrange for transportation but will coordinate transportation through the county for those who don’t have the means to get to a center after a storm. That was the case for some patients after Hurricane Wilma hit southern Collier County on Oct. 24, 2005.
“After Wilma, (the county) was very good about it,” she said. “They brought the patients to dialysis.”
In Fort Lauderdale, the Fresenius-owned Florida Kidney Center was the only dialysis center operational after Wilma in the region, taking in individuals from dialysis clinics run by other companies, she said.
All Fresenius-owned centers have generators that kick in when the electricity goes out and all have arrangements for water tank trucks to come on site and connect to a center’s water treatment system, said Todd Parker, the company’s regional technical manager for North Florida.
“We ran that way for a week right after Wilma at the Naples Artificial Kidney Center,” Knott said. “We took care of some patients from Clewiston and Belle Glade.”
Each generator runs $60,000 to $90,000 and each water hook-up system for the trucked-in tanks runs $500, Parker said.
In addition, the company has a logistics center at a warehouse with supplies and six recreational vehicles that can be sent to hurricane-damaged communities to house clinic employees whose homes have been damaged, he said.
“Previously we have put them right on the site (of the clinics),” Parker said of the RVs. “So we can take care of our own. Our focus is to get as much ready for recovery to create a little command center.”
DaVita Inc., which has five clinics in Fort Myers and one in Naples, likewise enhanced its hurricane plans after Katrina, said David McKenzie, a division vice president at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.
“We have a little over 100 dialysis centers in the state of Florida,” he said.All patients are educated about the plan before the storm and all are given a wrist band with a toll-free number to call to get help and find out the nearest center that is open, he said. Patients are encouraged to evacuate if they can.
The larger clinics have permanent generators and there are 15 generators that can be trucked in to smaller clinics that have lost power, he said. The company has arrangements for water to be brought in but that hasn’t been a problem during the past storms in Florida.
“During a disaster, we literally take in all-comers — we don’t care where they come from,” he said. “Billing is not relevant at that time.”
Hadley, the Naples resident who is a patient at Fresenius-owned Naples Artificial Kidney Center, remembers her experience before and after Wilma. She didn’t evacuate and stayed in her Golden Gate home.
She received a dialysis session on Sunday, the day before Wilma made landfall, and had her next dialysis on Wednesday. By then, the center was off its generator and back on normal power.
“They assured us everything would be OK and prepared us,” she said. “I felt confident.”
She feels the same going into hurricane season now.
“Oh yes, I’m confident nothing will happen without reason,” she said. “I’m prepared.”
Monday, June 4, 2007
Emergency Communications Kit
June 4, 2007
As every Floridian is aware, June 1st marked the beginning of the 2007 Hurricane Season. As providers begin reviewing their disaster plans and educating patients and staff, the Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition (FKDC) would like to assist by providing tools that address a key component of disaster preparedness and response: communication. This week, an “Emergency Communications Kit” will be mailed to all Florida renal social workers in an effort to supplement their resources for emergency preparedness.
Communication is an integral part of day-to-day life, however it takes on an even more critical role during times of emergencies or disasters. Emergency situations will occur regardless of whether or not a community is prepared for them and having established partnerships with pre-identified methods of communication can greatly enhance the ability to respond in a timely and efficient manner.
While each emergency event may preclude different procedures, the common denominator in every plan is the need to communicate and respond to appropriate agencies, such as Emergency Management, utility companies, police and patients. In all types of emergency situations, the ability to respond in a prompt and effective manner can help to reduce trauma, decrease disorder, and, especially for dialysis patients, can even be the shaping factor between life and death.
Communication and patient safety during emergencies should not be compromised by the time it takes to figure out which key personnel should be contacted and how to contact them. The tools in this Emergency Communications Kit have been developed to assist providers in reducing the uncertainty in pre and post emergency communication and to increase providers’ ability to communicate with key stakeholders promptly and effectively in emergency situations.
Please remember, these materials are not intended to replace any corporate Policies and Procedures, but to serve as a resource guide that complements internal disaster plans. All of the Toolkit documents are also available for download on the FKDC website at www.fmqai.com/ESRD/FKDC/. We hope that you will encourage your social workers to utilize these materials to foster effective communication practices that will help to ensure the safety and care of all kidney patients
Sincerely,
Kelly M. Mayo, MS
Project Director
FKDC Member
As every Floridian is aware, June 1st marked the beginning of the 2007 Hurricane Season. As providers begin reviewing their disaster plans and educating patients and staff, the Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition (FKDC) would like to assist by providing tools that address a key component of disaster preparedness and response: communication. This week, an “Emergency Communications Kit” will be mailed to all Florida renal social workers in an effort to supplement their resources for emergency preparedness.
Communication is an integral part of day-to-day life, however it takes on an even more critical role during times of emergencies or disasters. Emergency situations will occur regardless of whether or not a community is prepared for them and having established partnerships with pre-identified methods of communication can greatly enhance the ability to respond in a timely and efficient manner.
While each emergency event may preclude different procedures, the common denominator in every plan is the need to communicate and respond to appropriate agencies, such as Emergency Management, utility companies, police and patients. In all types of emergency situations, the ability to respond in a prompt and effective manner can help to reduce trauma, decrease disorder, and, especially for dialysis patients, can even be the shaping factor between life and death.
Communication and patient safety during emergencies should not be compromised by the time it takes to figure out which key personnel should be contacted and how to contact them. The tools in this Emergency Communications Kit have been developed to assist providers in reducing the uncertainty in pre and post emergency communication and to increase providers’ ability to communicate with key stakeholders promptly and effectively in emergency situations.
Please remember, these materials are not intended to replace any corporate Policies and Procedures, but to serve as a resource guide that complements internal disaster plans. All of the Toolkit documents are also available for download on the FKDC website at www.fmqai.com/ESRD/FKDC/. We hope that you will encourage your social workers to utilize these materials to foster effective communication practices that will help to ensure the safety and care of all kidney patients
Sincerely,
Kelly M. Mayo, MS
Project Director
FKDC Member
Friday, June 1, 2007
Press Release 5/24/2007
FLORIDA KIDNEY DISASTER COALITION
COLLABORATES WITH LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Tampa, Fla. – Today the Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition (FKDC) announced they are partnering with Pinellas County Emergency Management officials to ensure that dialysis facilities and renal patients are incorporated into the county’s comprehensive emergency management plan (CEMP). The initial planning meeting will be held this week, and a future tabletop exercise is in the making. The FKDC is a statewide planning and readiness organization aiming to facilitate partnerships to ensure the continuity of care for renal patients during emergency situations.
Last year, the FKDC successfully held a similar meeting with Hillsborough County emergency management. The Coalition provides the dialysis community and non-renal stakeholders with a better understanding of their respective capabilities and requirements during emergency situations. The Hillsborough meeting opened lines of communication that will result in greatly improved coordination and cooperation.
“Hillsborough County and the renal community have been working for years to develop their emergency plan. At this point we have not had to test the plan, but the Table Exercise was extremely helpful in working out the bugs. FKDC will help spearheading a statewide plan to get all the counties interested in developing their own plans. I think we are well on our way to making this happen in Duval, Orange, and West Palm Beach counties,” noted Linda Carroll Chairperson for the FKDC subcommittee on disaster drills.
Pinellas County currently has 18 dialysis clinics and over 800 patients. The county also has many unique emergency planning considerations, not only with the coastal vulnerability, but also because it is the sixth most populated county and has the highest population density in the State of Florida.
The FKDC works with multiple jurisdictions, collaborating with dialysis providers and emergency management stakeholders to ensure a unity of efforts and prevent complications of disorganization or the duplication of efforts.
Fore more information, or to join the Coalition, visit http://fmqai.com/ESRD/FKDC
June 1: Hurricane Season 2007
Welcome to the Florida Kidney Disaster Coalition (FKDC) blog.
Today is the start of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Today is also the first day of the Florida Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday. This tax-free holiday lasts until June 12 so make sure to stock up on batteries, flashlights, coolers and other supplies now. For a list of qualifying items, visit http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/tips/pdf/tip07a01-04.pdf
Remember, the National Hurricane Center (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/) predicts 13-17 named storms this year, and estimates that 3-5 major hurricanes will strike somewhere along the U.S. coast. A "major hurricane" is defined as a Category 3 or higher, meaning it has winds greater than 111 miles per hour.
Today is the start of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Today is also the first day of the Florida Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday. This tax-free holiday lasts until June 12 so make sure to stock up on batteries, flashlights, coolers and other supplies now. For a list of qualifying items, visit http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/tips/pdf/tip07a01-04.pdf
Remember, the National Hurricane Center (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/) predicts 13-17 named storms this year, and estimates that 3-5 major hurricanes will strike somewhere along the U.S. coast. A "major hurricane" is defined as a Category 3 or higher, meaning it has winds greater than 111 miles per hour.
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