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Is the Nation Ready in the Event of a Disaster?

Summary: Where does your state rank in disaster preparedness? How about our nation as a whole? It's not as good as you'd think.
Air Date: 1/17/14
Duration: 10
Host: Dr. Leigh Vinocur, MD
Guest Bio: Paul Kivela, MD
Dr. Paul Kivela is a member of ACEP’s Board of Directors and currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer of ACEP. He is managing partner of the Napa Valley Emergency Medical Group in California. Dr. Kivela is also medical director of Medic Ambulance and currently serves on the board of the Queen of the Valley Medical Center. He is former president of the Napa County Medical Association.

Dr. Kivela has been actively involved in the ACEP council for more than 15 years and has worked with the Reimbursement Committee on fair payment issues and has been an ACEP councilor or alternate since 1994. On the state level, he has served as president of the California chapter of ACEP. On the national level, he has served as chair of the ACEP state legislation and regulatory committee for the past three years.

Dr. Kivela is a graduate of the University of Illinois where he also earned his medical degree. He completed his emergency medicine residency at UCLA. He received his MBA at the University of Tennessee.
Is the Nation Ready in the Event of a Disaster?
In recent years, there have been many tragic events and national disasters in the U.S. From 9/11 to multiple shootings in our nation's schools, airports and even movie theaters, to the Boston Marathon bombing and countless other events, it seems these days that you never know when a disaster or mass casualty event will take place.

Is our nation ready?

The newest ACEP Emergency Medical Environment report card was recently released, and the U.S. overall grade in disaster preparedness was a C-.

This grade would strongly indicate that our medical system as a whole is not as prepared as it should be. Certainly, there are isolated incidents where the system shines, but overall, it needs some work.

In this segment, Dr. Paul Kivela joins Dr. Leigh to discuss the findings of the report card, as well as what you can do to help improve the overall grade.

Check the grades and see where your state ranks at www.emreportcard.org.

Additionally, see what you can do to help improve the Nation's grade here.