CDC Response To Hurricane Katrina Detailed In Report

CDC's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was hampered by repeated changes in the line of command, which caused confusion, communications breakdowns and duplicative efforts, according to a report obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Young, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/16). Earlier this month, CDC said it planned to use the report to analyze the agency's response to the hurricane and make improvements in emergency preparedness (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/7). CDC repeatedly has declined to publicly release the report, which was issued last year by the consulting firm BearingPoint. According to the Journal-Constitution, the 160-page report states that CDC's response to the hurricane was effective at monitoring for diseases, vaccinating evacuees and sending medical supplies. The report found that the agency had operational success in three areas: information technology support staff responded to requests efficiently; field teams obtained necessary equipment quickly; and CDC staff in a joint field office expedited assistance requests from states. However, the report said those successes occurred despite management problems that "worked against the ability to provide an orchestrated, timely and efficient response." According to the report, managerial changes at the agency prior to Katrina "impacted leadership, the chain or lines of command and communications channels, which contributed to the sense of chaos and frustration, both within the (emergency operations center) and for the deployed CDC personnel." The report continues, "The confusion associated with the initial response/reaction to Katrina, the media attention and the desire to 'do something' resulted in some personnel deploying without an assigned mission. Although the desire to provide immediate assistance in the time of a catastrophic incident is understandable, it is better to clarify Mission Assignments prior to deploying resources." A "key recommendation" of the report states that "CDC leadership must agree to follow an established organizational structure within (its emergency operations center) and embrace the corresponding (procedures), lines of authority, communication and information flow processes."

CDC Reaction
CDC Director Julie Gerberding referred all questions about the report to her spokesperson, Tom Skinner. Skinner said the agency considers its response to Katrina "one of our shining moments" but added, "Dr. Gerberding as well as all of the senior leadership who have a role in emergency preparedness and response take this report very seriously and believe there is a lot to learn from the report." In response to the report's finding that CDC does not regularly conduct emergency response exercises, Skinner said that CDC since Katrina has conducted about 18 emergency exercises, put 1,000 employees through emergency response training and put more than 400 through incident-management courses. "CDC is light years ahead of where we once were. Can we do better? Yes. Will we do better? Absolutely, yes," Skinner said (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/16).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.