CL04: THE 2017 HURRICANE SEASON IN PUERTO RICO: CHALLENGES IN SURGICAL EDUCATION
Roberto C Hernández-Irizarry, MD, MSc, Roberto Colón-Miranda, MD, Manuel Ramirez-Gonzalez, MD, Antonio Otero-López, MD, Francisco Lopez-Gonzalez, MD; University of Puerto Rico

Background: The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the most active and deadly in history. Our institution is the only tertiary and trauma referral center for our 3.5 million population, and was not exempt of the damages caused. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of Hurricane Maria on surgical case load of the orthopedic surgery residency.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients who were admitted to service in the aftermath of hurricane Maria.

Results: Prior to Hurricane Maria, an average of 42 patients were admitted weekly from the emergency room. Usually, 11 patients are operated daily in 4 rooms including trauma, general and pediatric orthopedics. The month after hurricane Maria, 66 patients were admitted weekly to our service. However, we were only able to operate on 4 patients daily during that first week. A total of 15 patients (14 adults, 1 child) were transferred to community hospitals after being admitted due to OR unavailability and patient overflow. All elective procedures were cancelled during the first 4 weeks, with a significant number of patients requiring delayed fracture care.

Conclusions: >Natural disasters are an unavoidable event that can hinder patient care and subsequent resident education.