In Case of Emergency, Read This Blog

In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A Citizen’s Eye View of Public Preparedness

Helping Citizens Get Necessary Extra Prescription Medicine Before A Disaster

July 8th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Thanks to John Bowen’s Hometown Security blog, I learned about an interesting citizen preparedness development —  the Florida legislature’s passage of the “Emergency Prescription Refill Bill” to help citizens store medicine for major emergencies. The legislation would “require all insurers and managed-care organizations to suspend refill-too-soon restrictions when a patient seeks a refill” if their county is under a hurricane warning or in a state of emergency.

The Florida “Refill Bill” partially addresses an impediment for citizens trying to fully prepare for disasters. Practically every government preparedness site recommends that people store an extra supply of the prescription medicines they use in case of an extended emergency. For example, the Department of Homeland Security’s Ready.Gov site suggests that every American, as part of their emergency home preparedness kit, have an extra supply of:

“Prescription medicines you take every day such as insulin, heart medicine and asthma inhalers. You should periodically rotate medicines to account for expiration dates.”  Ask your doctor about storing prescription medications such as heart and high blood pressure medication, insulin and other prescription drugs.

But the problem is that most insurance plans and HMO’s do not allow customers to purchase extra medicine. So, you have officials instructing the public to stock medicine that many cannot get even if they wanted to. Unfortunately, this kind of situation is too often typical of citizen preparedness information campaigns — telling people to do something that isn’t possible let alone cost or time effective for them and then not helping them in any significant way to deal with that obstacle. As a result, it should not be surprising that so few people are actually prepared.

It is good to see the Florida legislature addressing the medical refill obstacle for their residents, many of whom are elderly with significant prescription drug needs. As Bowen smartly notes, “simply telling people to ‘be prepared’ is not enough. Sometimes you’ve got to remove obstacles for them. This law is a good example of that.”  

This is something that needs to be addressed in other states and by the federal government. And, it should be part of a broader, more complete effort to better educate and equip civilians to deal with their own (and their family’s) health needs during major disasters. Another aspect of that issue is how civilians will be provided medicine in the event of a significant public health crisis (such as a bioterror event or a pandemic). One possibility, as discussed in my previous post, is distributing emergency in home medical kits in advance.

The refill issue also illustrates the need for government emergency preparedness officials to take a new look at all the obstacles the public faces in the preparedness process. And then they should work with various stakeholders, including the private sector (in this case the health care industry) and the public itself, to figure out ways to address them. I think we would find that dealing with the obstacles to public readiness is less a matter of more government money than it is focus, creativity and effort.

 

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Tags: Public Health Preparedness

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 The Many Obstacles To Citizen Preparedness // Jul 12, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    [...] a post earlier this week, I discussed the Florida Legislature’s attempt to address an obstacle faced by citizens as [...]

  • 2 Emergency Preparedness and Prescription Medicines | Security Debrief - a blog of homeland security news and analysis // Jul 13, 2008 at 9:24 am

    [...] From “In Case of Emergency, Read Blog”: Helping Citizens Get Necessary Extra Prescriptio… Practically every government preparedness site recommends that people store an extra supply of the prescription medicines they use in case of an extended emergency. For example, the Department of Homeland Security’s Ready.Gov site suggests that every American, as part of their emergency home preparedness kit, have an extra supply of: [...]

  • 3 DWIGHT CHASTAIN // Aug 25, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    PEOPLE IN FLORIDA ARE HAVING A HARD TIME DOING THIS, GETTING REFILL OR HAVING A MONTHS SUPPLY. AND I’M IN BREVARD COUNTY WHERE WERE IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY NOW ,WITH ANOTHER STORM THAT COULD COME THIS WAY AND I THOUGHT THERE WAS NEW STATUES ON THE BOOKS ALREADY..PLEASE RESPOND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. AS I’M TAKING CARE OF MY EDERLY FATHER AND I’M 53 AND NOT IN GOOD SHAPE, BUT HAVING A HARD TIME WITH PHYSIANS ANS PHARMACY’S

    SINCERERLY YOURS
    DWIGHT CHASTAIN

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