UT Health San Antonio issued the following announcement.
Two emergency medical services (EMS) physician specialists from the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio are in El Paso this morning to aid with the response to hospital overflow caused by the surge of COVID-19 infections there.
Katherine Raczek, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and Bryan Everitt, MD, EMS fellow, flew to El Paso Thursday evening. They are working in a Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) set up in front of University Medical Center, caring for patients whose condition is a step down from needing the intensive care unit (ICU).
“The MMU is a mini-hospital with pharmacy services, doctors, nursing, lab and cots,” Dr. Raczek said. “We can do the whole range of medical procedures and interventions there. It is like a field hospital you might see in a military deployment setting.”
The Long School of Medicine physicians are in El Paso as part of Texas Emergency Medical Task Force 8, which is composed of partners from the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) and the Golden Crescent Regional Advisory Council.
“This is obviously a bad situation, but it is a good opportunity for us to get involved and serve and do what we love to do, so we are excited,” Dr. Raczek said.
Disaster response, including pandemic disaster relief, is part of an EMS specialist’s job, Dr. Everitt said.
“Emergency medicine physicians deal with a variety of patients,” he said. “We are right at home taking care of both a critically ill patient and a non-ICU patient. If for some reason the ICUs at an event become overloaded, we have that ability to flex.”
EMS physicians are used to working in PPE (personal protective equipment).
“Even before COVID-19 hit, we saw patients who required special precautions,” Dr. Everitt said. “It’s just a fact of life in the emergency department.”
“One of the unique things about UT Health San Antonio is we have several fellowships in the Department of Emergency Medicine,” Dr. Raczek said. “Among them, we have EMS, Wilderness Medicine, Disaster Medicine, Global Health and Ultrasound. We train in disaster situations like this, mass casualty incidents, and that gives us an edge because we are prepared.”
“It’s important that people know there are physicians who are trained in EMS and that we provide this service to our citizens,” Dr. Everitt said. “I don’t think most people know there is a specialty in EMS. It is a new specialty full of very motivated and high-speed people.”
Dr. Raczek is glad to serve in El Paso for another reason: She trained at University Medical Center for three years as a resident physician.
“For me it’s an opportunity, Texans helping Texans, to serve in general, but also I have a special place in my heart for El Paso because it was my training institution,” she said.
Original source can be found here.
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