October 15, 2008
Jane Russell and Jeff Conner, Public Health Service officers, were recently deployed to help hurricane victims in the Lower 48.
YKHC employees help Lower 48 hurricane victims
By Tiffany Zulkosky
The recent hurricane activity has not only affected the Southcentral and Southeastern regions of the United States. The lives of people living on the rolling tundra of western Alaska have also been impacted by the extreme weather.
Jane Russell, Administrator of Village Operations, and Jeffrey Conner, Director of Safety and Security, are part of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps. As part of their commitment to the Corps, Russell and Conner must be on-call for deployment at least twice a year. In August, both were dispatched to areas distressed by the impending hurricane activity in the Southern United States.
Jane Russell takes a two-week break from Village Operations to focus on national relief efforts
Russell, a Commander in the USPHS, received an e-mail in late August alerting her of her first deployment in her 11-year USPHS career.
"I am on a Rapid Deployment Force (RDF)-3 team," said Russell. "My team was on-call for the month of September. I received daily e-mails alerting me to the status of our team (alert, activation, deployment)."
Russell arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, on Monday, September 1. During her first week on deployment, Russell worked in a field medical station, or 150 FMS, at Jackson State University. The 150 FMS was providing care for 84 nursing home patients displaced from Louisiana.
Russell served as the Deputy Administration/Finance Section Chief, maintaining officer information, completing all required databases, tracking all finances associated with purchases, and took minutes at command meetings.
After demobilizing the site in Jackson, Russell took a four-hour bus ride to Atlanta, Georgia, to prepare for Hurricane Ike. After two days of training on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system and the National Disaster Management System (NDMS), Hurricane Ike changed its course and began moving toward Texas. The RDF-3 team took an 8-hour bus ride to Baton Rouge, LA, to join an established mobile special needs shelter at the Louisiana State University basketball stadium.
"I worked anywhere from 12-18 hours per day, with no days off," Russell said of her experience. "I slept in a dorm room at Jackson State, to a hotel room in Atlanta, to a cot in tent city in Baton Rouge, and finally to a cot at the basketball stadium."
"I spent exhausting days and sleepless nights, sprinkled with terrible cafeteria food. However, that is not what stays with me today," concluded Russell. "What stays with me are the comments from caregivers calling us ‘angels,' community members thanking us for our service, college student volunteers who came and befriended displaced nursing home residents, meeting up with long-time friends and hearing the latest news in their careers and family, and the camaraderie that only sleep deprivation and pots of coffee can bring."
Russell returned home Tuesday, September 16.
Jeffrey Conner provides Safety/Security for national relief sites
Conner is in his third year as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) with the USPHS. On-call during the month of September, he received a call in late August saying he was selected for deployment to hurricane relief sites. He received a second call saying he was leaving and had less than a day to prepare for his August 30 departure.
"I flew into Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas," said Conner about his first location of the deployment. "I arrived at East Baptist Texas University in Marshall, Texas, to provide safety and security for an 87-bed special needs shelter. Many of the displaced patients were from Louisiana, evacuating from Hurricane Gustav."
After working with the Command Staff in Marshall, Conner spent three days in Atlanta, Georgia. Because the path of the hurricane shifted, Conner was relocated to College Station, Texas, to work at Texas A&M University's sports arena.
"What I did on a daily basis was risk assessments, such as evaluating our surrounding environment and finding any weaknesses in the location," stated Conner. "I provided building assessments, incident planning, and addressed overall safety concerns for a field medical station caring for 297 bed-ridden patients."
Conner slept on a cot with plastic pillows and paper sheets. His diet consisted of McDonald's, Subway, and Military Rations.
"My experiences at YKHC were very helpful while I was deployed. Out of 200 USPHS officers, I was the only one with hands-on knowledge of providing safety and security for a health care organization," Conner said about his overall experience. "The timing of the deployment worked out really well because we are reworking YKHC's emergency operations plan. Being able to meet the other officers from all over the country and joining a Rapid Deployment Force team was a great opportunity."
Conner returned home on Monday, September 15.
The Commissioned Corps is a team of over 6,000 full-time public health professionals who serve to deliver public health promotion and disease prevention programs.
Every member of the Corps is trained to respond to a public health crisis and national emergency (such as a natural disaster or disease outbreak).
The Commissioned Corps dates back to 1798 when President John Adams signed the Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen, eventually expanding to cover care for the U.S. Navy.
