HHS declares public health emergency in Texas

Hurricane Harvey forces hospitals to close


The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was forced to close nine locations Monday due to severe flooding from Hurricane Harvey, according to an article on the Fierce Healthcare website.

Several Texas hospitals have had to evacuate patients and operate on backup systems.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price declares a public health emergency in Texas, which will allow the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services to waive certain documentation requirements so hospitals and nursing homes that don’t have access to patient records can care for evacuated patients, the article said.

HHS has helped evacuate 182 patients from three hospitals in Victoria; sent 53,000 pounds of medical equipment and supplies to Texas and Louisiana, activated the AABB blood disaster task force and has more than 500 personnel on the ground.

Read the article.

 

 



August 30, 2017


Topic Area: Safety


Recent Posts

Resilience Planning in Remote Healthcare Facilities

Assumptions about equipment failures and response times change when a hospital is hundreds of miles from the nearest major city.


Missouri Southern State University Opens Roy Blunt Health Science Innovation Center

The project broke ground in April 2024.


HCA Florida Unveils Plans for New Cape Coral Hospital

The planned hospital will be located where HCA Florida Cape Coral Emergency currently operates.


5 Reasons Engineering is the Edge in Healthcare Master Planning

The most successful plans go further to unlock smarter investments, improve resilience and enable better patient outcomes.


Building an AI-Ready Healthcare Facility 

Creating a secure, standardized data foundation can help facilities teams put AI to work more effectively.


 
 


FREE Newsletter Signup Form

News & Updates | Webcast Alerts
Building Technologies | & More!

 
 
 


All fields are required. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.