A shift in focus

We've heard that Hurricane Rita was bad. We've heard it through the stories of the people we see in Lafayette, in Abbeville, in New Iberia, in Ville Platte. Yet, these stories didn't seem much different than the ones we heard from folks living in New Orleans affected by Katrina.

Rita became more real as we witness the dramatic increase of patients coming into our Special Needs Shelter. You saw the photo of the FEMA helecopter drop two days ago. Now we've seen an amazing run of patients in the past 24 hours that has made us pull resources to staff a near-literal hospital unit, full of respiratory cases, med cases, psych cases, etc as the hospitals in town are busy and full themselves.

We've shifted our focus to help in this extreme time of need. Nurses getting back to basics, being true generalists, physicians, NPs, the entire team pulling together in a way that would write the book on 'teamwork' for the School of Business.

Note to family: Yes...it took me only two days to pull off a 24-hour day. No...I promise I won't repeat it!