Fresenius Medical Care is Ready to Respond to this Season’s Tornados, Hurricanes, Floods and Other Weather Emergencies
May 21 2014 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Advance Planning Ensures That Dialysis Patients
Can Continue Life-Sustaining Treatments After Disaster Strikes
When a deadly tornado with winds up to 200 miles per hour swept
through Louisville, Miss., on April 28, nine patients and five
staff members were inside the Fresenius Medical Care Winston County
dialysis clinic. The building sustained extensive damage to its
windows, walls and roof, but no patients or staff were injured. As
the storm subsided, staff members quickly began rolling out
emergency plans to treat the clinic’s patients at other nearby
facilities while their own facility is being repaired.
The tornados that hit Louisville and nearly a dozen other
Mississippi locales – as well as the approaching Atlantic hurricane
season, which begins June 1 – provide vivid reminders of the
importance of being prepared for natural disasters. While tornados,
hurricanes, floods and other emergencies can wreak havoc on entire
communities, they pose an especially serious health threat to
dialysis patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), who need
life-sustaining treatment three times a week to remove waste
products and extra fluids from their blood after their kidneys have
failed.
Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation’s
leading network of dialysis facilities, invests heavily in
emergency response planning and preparation to be ready for events
that could potentially interrupt treatments for its more than
170,000 U.S. patients. The company’s Disaster Response Team works closely with local governments
and community organizations to ensure that patients can continue to
receive treatments, medical supplies, medicines and lab services
during emergencies. And while most of its activity occurs during
storm season, the disaster team works year round to anticipate
potential problems and develop response strategies.
“We’re dedicated to responding effectively and efficiently to
provide emergency care for our staff and patients during times of
crisis,” says Bill Numbers, FMCNA’s senior vice president of
operations support and incident commander for disaster response and
planning. “Our response has been tested time and time again – from
Hurricanes Sandy, Ike and Katrina, to this year’s tornados in
Mississippi – and we continue to learn from each new event, which
enables us to respond even better the next time.”
Less than 100 miles from the Louisville clinic, just outside of
Jackson, Miss., a company warehouse serves as a crisis staging area
and logistical command center to respond to disasters across the
United States. Like several other strategically located FMCNA
facilities, it is home to a fleet of fully-equipped portable
temporary housing and supply trailers, as well as generators, fuel,
food and medical supplies that can be quickly deployed to assist
clinics and staff members whose homes have been affected, following
a natural disaster.
On May 20 and 21, the Jackson facility will host FMCNA’s annual
Disaster Preparation Summit, which will provide emergency-response
training to company managers and emergency specialists from across
the country. FMCNA also consistently reviews, revises and updates
its national and regional disaster plans.
While FMCNA does its best to ensure continued service in the
event of disasters, it recommends that dialysis patients and their
loved ones prepare themselves during storm season by following an
emergency checklist developed by the company.
For more information on FMCNA’s disaster response efforts and
important tips to help patients prepare for any emergency, visit
FMCNA’s Disaster Response website.
About Fresenius Medical Care North
America
Through its leading network of more than 2,150 dialysis
facilities in North America and vascular access centers,
laboratory, pharmacy and affiliated hospitals and nephrology
practices, Fresenius Medical Care provides renal services to
hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States,
Mexico and Canada. It is also the continent’s top producer of
dialysis equipment, dialyzers and related disposable products and a
major supplier of renal pharmaceuticals.
For more information about the company, visit www.fmcna.com; for
information about patient services, visit
www.ultracare-dialysis.com.
Media contact:Full & BySarah Miller, 1-617-638-0022 /
voicemillers@fullandby.coorCompany contact:Fresenius Medical
CareCharles Hendricks, 1-678-285-9235 /
voicecharles.hendricks@fmc-na.com
Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE:FMS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE:FMS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024