Sater: Joplin: Volunteer Medical Personnel

More volunteer information from the Dept. of Health & Senior Services. David

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Good Afternoon,

Due to the high volume of injuries and casualties resulting from the storm in Joplin yesterday, the Department of Health and Senior Services has received many requests on how medical personnel might volunteer to assist in relief efforts. In case you receive such inquiries to your offices, I wanted to send out information on how your constituents’ medical backgrounds can be best and most efficiently utilized.

At this time, the Department of Health and Senior Services’ Center for Emergency Response and Terrorism is asking that medical personnel register with the Show-Me Response registry, an electronic registry for volunteer medical professionals. Once a volunteer’s credentials have been checked and validated, the volunteer will be contacted and directed where to go based on the person’s expertise and the services needed at that time.

Since yesterday at 6 pm, the Department of Health has received over 2000 requests to register with the Show-Me Response program. Though a fantastic show of public service, it does create a problem for the program’s servers in computing the influx of website registrants. If a constituent has trouble getting through to register, please ask them to be patient and keep trying – we definitely want them to be able to register.

Secondly, to be in compliance with the federal guidelines for the Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals, we must check and validate all medical credentials, which with the influx of interested professionals, might take up to a week. The most important aspect to emphasize to our medical professionals wanting to volunteer is to NOT report directly to Joplin without first being approved; though the help is very much appreciated, it adds additional burden to staff already in place, as personnel cannot work unless their credentials have been validated. Again, we apologize for the wait, but this is an important facet of ensuring quality medical care during disasters.

The Show-Me Response website where medical professionals can register is found at https://showmeresponse.org/.

All others who want to volunteer their services who are not medical professionals:
They can do so by calling United Way 211. To call, just dial “211” from inside Missouri or (800) 427-4626. United Way can also be contacted by going to their website to register at http://www.211missouri.org/. UW 211 works with other voluntary organizations active in disasters (VOADs) and will assist with coordinating volunteer deployments by matching up skills with needs. They are also getting a high volume of calls, so please be patient.

$10.00 donations for American Red Cross can be given by texting “REDCROSS” to 90999 or visit www.Redcross.org.

For persons wanting to check on loved ones who they cannot contact or for those who have survived:
Visit Red Cross' Safe and Well site to register if you are safe and for family to check often for their loved ones who are missing. http://redcross.org/safeandwell

Thank you in advance for helping to organize these disaster relief efforts. Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions or need additional information.

Sincerely,
Ellie Glenn
Chief, Office of Governmental Policy and Legislation
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services