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
