The case for an EMR post-Katrina
“Melinda Amedee was scheduled to have a tumor removed from her kidney at a New Orleans hospital on August 30. She lives far enough away from the city to have missed serious damage from Hurricane Katrina. But when the 17th Street Canal levee broke the day before, she knew she wouldn’t be having an operation at the Ochsner Cancer Institute anytime soon. With a 25-year history of kidney problems, Amedee, 39, was worried about the delay, and quickly arranged to have the surgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But like thousands of other patients evacuated after the storm, Amedee presented her new doctors with a challenge: no medical records, and no way of contacting her Louisiana kidney specialist.”