Emergency Preparedness & Response
Faculty & Residents Disaster Relief
Our Faculty & Residents providing
post-hurricane medical support in
the Cayman Islands in 2004.
The George Washington University is located less than a mile away from the National Mall and all of the National Monuments, the State Department, and the World Bank. Further, George Washington Hospital is the closest hospital to most of the major government buildings including the White House. Given this location, the Department of Emergency Medicine has a long history of active involvement in Emergency Preparedness and Response at the federal and local levels.
The Department of Emergency Medicine has been actively involved with preparedness efforts on the local level, such as leading the George Washington University Hospital’s Emergency Management Program, working with our surrounding community such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in their employee preparedness efforts, and providing CERT training to the general public. Our response to emergencies has also included the GO TEAM. This team of physicians responds upon the request of local jurisdictions to the site of an accident or disaster and assists the local EMS system in their response.
Our regional and federal activities have included being Medical Team Managers on the Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1, DHS, and DOD affiliations.
The Faculty is also heavily involved in hospital and medical center educational efforts in disaster and emergency preparedness matters as well.
VA-TF1 / Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team: One of Two Urban Search & Rescue teams that is deployed internationally by the US government - Four physicians and one resident are currently actively involved as Medical Director and Medical Team Managers
The Go Team: Sponsored by the George Washington University Hospital (GWUH) and the Medical Faculty Associates (MFA). The Go Team is a field deployable medical team in support of medical operations by local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) It has been deployed in the past in the District of Columbia and Arlington County. The composition of the team has varied pending the needs of the situation. It is always lead by an Emergency Medicine Attending and has included physicians from the Department of Surgery and the Department of Anesthesia.
History of GW Physician deployments include:
- Bombing April 1995 Oklahoma City, OK (Including an EM Resident)
- Olympic Standby July 1996 Atlanta, GA
- Hurricane September 1996 Topsail, NC
- Bombing August 1998 Nairobi, Kenya (including an EM Resident)
- Earthquake August 1999 Izmit, Turkey
- Earthquake September 1999 Touliu, Taiwan (including an EM fellow)
- Earthquake October 1999 Duzce, Turkey (including an EM fellow)
- Terrorism September 2001 The Pentagon, Virginia (EM resident)
- Olympics Standby February 2002 - Salt Lake City, UT
- Hurricane September 2003 Eastern Seaboard, USA
- Earthquake December 2003 Bam, Iran
- G-8 National Security Event June 2004 - Sea Island, GA
- Hurricane August 2004 - Charlotte County, FL
- Partnership work with multiple federal agencies
- GW Hospital Emergency Preparedness Committee
- Local and Regional Emergency Preparedness
Faculty:
Ray Lucas, M.D.
Anthony Macintyre, M.D.
Bruno Petinaux, M.D.
E. Reed Smith, M.D.