Home Health & Hospice Week
Home Care Community Mobilizes After Oklahoma Tornadoes
How would your organization handle loss of communication, power and water?
Home care providers have gotten a tragic reminder of why they need to have their disaster plans ready to go with the devastating tornado in Moore, Okla.
At press time, the Oklahoma Association for Home Care & Hospice hadn’t received any reports of loss of life for either staff or patients of home care providers in the affected areas of Moore, Oklahoma City, and Shawnee, executive director Annette Mays said.
"Most home care and hospice agencies were able to implement their agency disaster plans," Mays told Eli. "Messages and phone calls are still trickling in as these employers are finding out which of their employees and patients were affected by these disasters."
Providers in the areas continued to struggle with power outages and had just seen water service restored, Mays said. In addition, "some of our home health and hospice employees are first responders and have been assisting in triaging and rescue," she added.
The trade group also was trying to coordinate assistance from the many agencies who wanted to help out, Mays said.
The wider home care community also is reaching out to offer help in the wake of the devastating tornado in Moore, Okla.
Hospice Cleveland County nurse Michelle Putnam is delivering supplies from Cleveland County, N.C., to Cleveland County, Okla., reports The (Shelby) Star newspaper. At press time, Putnam was collecting donations of "anything and everything" to deliver to the tornado victims. Donations included non-perishable food items, water, First Aid kit items, clothes, shoes, gift cards, cash, Walmart cards, gas cards and toiletries like soap and toothpaste.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and Oklahoma Hospice trade groups have contacted programs in the region to see what support is needed, they say on their websites.
OAHC is accepting donations for victims of the tornadoes on its website at www.oahc.com. NHPCO runs a disaster relief fund for events such as this, which accepts donations though a link at www.nhpco.org.
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