September 12, 2005 Hurricane Katrina #46 - Medical Professionals Must Be Appropriately Licensed to Work in Hurricane Katrina Relief EffortMedical Professionals Must Be Appropriately Licensed to Work in Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort

BATON ROUGE, Sep 12, 2005 -  

Baton Rouge – The Department of Health is overwhelmingly grateful for the many offers of help and wishes to remind any medical professionals coming to Louisiana to participate in the Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort that they must be appropriately licensed to practice medicine in the state.

Physicians, nurses and other volunteers must already be licensed by the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners OR must be credentialed by a specialized process through LDH in accordance with Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s executive order No. KBB 2005-26, declaring a public health state of emergency.  To protect the evacuees, LDH must perform this credentialing, though the usual process has been expedited quite dramatically.

Hurricane Katrina medical relief assignments will only be given to those workers who have completed the official LDH credentialing process, verifying appropriate medical licensure within the United States. These medical personnel will be provided with their individual assignment sheets indicating the site to which they should report to provide services.

Interested individuals are encouraged to log on to www.helpthemnow.net and complete the online registration process to be incorporated into Louisiana’s medical volunteer pool.

For a copy of Gov. Blanco’s executive order, visithttp://www.gov.state.la.us/2005%20Executive%20orders/26PublicHealthEmergencyDeclaration.pdf.