HHS has established a Medical Travel Center to transport hurricane evacuees from their current temporary health care centers to facilities in their home states or closer to caretakers or family. Evacuee patients who require active medical support while en route to their destinations and those who need medical transport accompanied by a nonmedical assistant qualify for this type of aid.
According to a Fact Sheet for Transportation of Evacuees with Medical Needs, (PDF file: 7 pages / 46.3 KB. More about PDFs.) Texas and Mississippi are accepting the return of patients to select counties; Louisiana is accepting the return of inpatient evacuees only, on a case-by-case basis.
The Medical Travel Center will arrange for transporting evacuees who were airlifted from their home states, who are currently temporary patients in health care facilities or who have ongoing outpatient medical needs. Patients will be transported to their homes as soon as their home counties' medical infrastructures have recuperated from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and can meet patients' needs.
Family physicians who are temporarily caring for patient evacuees from hurricane-affected areas should
- determine if patient evacuees should be transferred to a receiving facility or whether they can be discharged to a private residence and
- work with discharge planners to identify the receiving facility in the evacuee's home state or interim state and determine medical requirements during transport.
All medical evacuees must register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to obtain a disaster registration number. Inpatient discharge planners will arrange for FEMA registration numbers for each facility-to-facility evacuee and any necessary nonmedical assistant. They then will contact the HHS Medical Travel Center to arrange for medical transportation.
Texas or Mississippi patient evacuees who temporarily live in a hotel, residence or other facility that has no discharge planning should call FEMA at (800) 621-FEMA to get a disaster registration number. They then should call their home states to arrange transportation. Texas evacuees with medical needs can call 211 (in state) or (888) 312-4567 (out of state); Mississippi evacuees can call 601-576-7300. Telephones will be answered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT.
"Louisiana is not accepting the return of evacuees with medical needs who are not patients at health care facilities," says the HHS fact sheet. "When Louisiana determines it is able to support the return of evacuees with outpatient/ongoing medical needs, additional guidance will be disseminated."
Patients evacuated from Louisiana can continue receiving care in their host states or they may transfer, via the HHS Medical Travel Center service, to interim facilities or shelters near family or other caretakers. The HHS Medical Travel Center will arrange for later transport to a final health care location in Louisiana as soon as the state can accept them.
