In response to the damage left by Hurricane Maria, more than 500 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) personnel were recently deployed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to assist in medical and public health efforts.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also working in tandem with HHS to ensure the safety and availability of critical, medically-necessary products used by patients in need of care, including drugs and medical devices.
By the end of last week, more than 200 patients had been treated at a temporary federal medical site at the Centro Medico Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where HHS personnel have been providing staff support and temporary medical housing as emergency departments throughout the island continue to be overwhelmed.
“Hundreds of dedicated medical professionals from HHS are actively engaged in the response to help residents affected by these devastating storms,” Robert Ladlec, assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS, said. “We are fully committed to ensuring the local healthcare infrastructure comes back online to support the residents of Puerto Rico.”
HHS noted a lack of cell phone service in Puerto Rico has caused personnel to travel to each hospital throughout the island to physically assess the damage to facilities, what resources they might lack, and if patients need to be evacuated. Preliminary estimates showed that all but one of Puerto Rico’s medical facilities are operating on generators that will need resupply to continue medical care.