I have been following all the weather mess from Sandy on the east coast. My concern is for those with chronic diseases, particularly chronic pain, mental health and diabetes. New York City is basically a subway/bus/walking town… the subways are flooded, there are not enough buses and a large section of the city is still in the dark without electricity.
In the other states that are mostly “driving” states… no electricity means few/no fuel is available. They were showing long lines at filling stations that were working with people with gas cans in each hand… they apparently planned ahead to have generators… but didn’t have a plan to have/get fuel for those generators.
They interviewed one station owner, who said that he had a generator that he could run his pumps but had no way to accept debit/charge cards. No electricity probably means that no ATM’s are working either. How many people walk around with a few hundred dollars in their pockets.. or had it stashed in their house.. which may have been destroyed and their cash is lost or can’t be found.
This major storm was no surprise, it was predicted for days in advance. If , in general, people didn’t/couldn’t – for lack of funds – fill up their vehicles, get gas for their generators, get cash from a ATM.
If no electricity, how many pharmacies have back up generators? Few?? None??.. what about those patients that we won’t fill their controls more than two days early… wonder how many pts are not only in pain – and high on the pain scale – and has been thrown into withdrawal because they have ran out of their medications? How many mental health pts who normally suffer from anxiety… and now may be out of their medications with the added stress of the storm that has turned their life upside down?
Every part of the country is subject to some sort of natural disaster and disruption of our electrical service. Instead of pushing auto refills on everyone… we make a dedicated effort on that subset of patients that have disease states whose qualify of life or life itself could be put at risk.. if they run out of medication. Should we be working with these pts to encourage them to have at least a 7 day reserve of needed medications. To get them thru such natural disasters and disruption of normal services.
You know your pt base… of course, you are not going to encourage those who would most likely not maintain a 7 day reserve… but take them…
We are suppose to help patients maintain/improve their health/quality of life… could be short changing the pts we serve once again?
Filed under: General Problems
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