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UAB Critical Care Transport Team evacuated seven babies from the gulf region.

Hospitals across Alabama have been generous in aiding Katrina victims. In Birmingham, the Baptist Health System provided medical assistance to evacuees sheltered at the Birmingham-Jefferson convention center, while doctors and nurses from Princeton, Walker, Citizens, Shelby and Montclair Baptist Medical Centers volunteered at the airport to triage patients brought in by plane. The Baptist Health Foundation established a Hurricane Katrina relief fund designed as a donation vehicle for Baptist employees, as well as the general public.

In addition to admitting a large number of evacuees and existing patients from Mississippi and Louisiana, Brookwood Medical Center is assisting displaced Tenet employees with community placement. Brookwood has also collected food and clothing, while helping people find temporary housing.

DCH Health Systems have admitted 188 patients from affected areas and seen another 142 people on an outpatient basis. DCH Home Health has agreed to handle home health visits for any refugee determined to be in need of home healthcare.

After receiving nine patients from Louisiana, Healthsouth Medical Center employees initiated a support campaign to assist family members of these patients with toiletries, food and clothing. Healthsouth Medical employees are continuing to collect donated items for delivery to the affected areas. In addition, Healthsouth Corporation offered the former Healthsouth Metro West hospital to the Red Cross as a shelter for displaced evacuees.

Gadsden Regional Medical Center sent a clinical team to Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg, Miss., along with a group from the engineering department, carrying building and roofing supplies.

Medical Center East has provided care for 27 Katrina survivors, 11 of whom arrived at the Birmingham International Airport where 21 members of the MCE staff awaited them. In addition to donating food and clothing to evacuees, 99 Medical Center East staff members have volunteered at airports and shelters throughout the area to help victims. One retired surgeon is actually flying a patient to Kansas to reunite with her son.

St. Vincent's hospital is working to partner with a physician to fly provisions and volunteers to affected areas in the gulf, while Stringfellow Memorial in Anniston sent a team with supplies to assist a hospital in Biloxi.

UAB Hospital has admitted over 30 evacuee patients, including 13 who were airlifted from the New Orleans hospitals by the National Disaster Medical System. Eight patients were flown to Birmingham by the UAB Critical Care Transport team. In conjunction with the Red Cross, UAB medical residents and pharmacists are maintaining an on-site medical clinic at the BJCC for evacuees sheltering there.

The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center has received 76 patients from the Biloxi VA Medical Center. They plan to continue housing these patients as long as needed.

Even after Katrina, some events cannot be rescheduled: it appears that several Louisiana babies will now have Birmingham on their birth certificates. Baptist Montclair hosted a baby shower for their four evacuee patients who are expecting to deliver this month. When Carraway Methodist employees found a family with a pregnant wife asleep in their car in the Carraway parking lot, the hospital decided to house the family free of charge. The wife is expecting within weeks. At least two pregnant evacuees expect to deliver at St. Vincent's. In the meantime, two babies have been born at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa.

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