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Hospital ERs unprepared to handle terrorist attacks

Emergency Management Alert, May 13, 2008

Nearly seven years after 9/11, the country’s ERs and hospitals are not prepared to deal with the surge of patients that could result from a major terrorist attack, according to a House oversight committee.

And medical professionals warned Capital Hill lawmakers May 5 that the readiness to treat victims of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster will be weakened further if Medicaid cuts take effect May 26. The planned cuts to Medicaid will restrict payments to public providers, eliminate funding for graduate medical education, and cut reimbursements for outpatient hospital care.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government surveyed 34 hospitals in seven major cities—New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Denver, and Minneapolis—and found they had no space in their ERs to treat a sudden surge of patients, had few available beds in their intensive care units, and too few regular beds to handle those with less serious injuries, reported USA Today. Lawmakers surveyed hospitals in the five cities considered at highest risk for terrorist attack and in the two cities hosting this summer’s political conventions.

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