Went to volunteer this morning at the Astrodome. The HCHD has set-up a full service hospital inside the Reliant Arena. This facility was simply amazing. Enclosed inside was a fully functional urgent care facility with triage, observation unit, specialty surgical services, central supply, pharmacy, mental/behavioral health.

This was built up in less than 48 hours complete with x-ray, eye glass manufacturing, orthotic and bracing distribution. ALL of the staff there were volunteers. There were more volunteer physicians, nurses, etc than patients. I worked in the orthopedic clinic with another doctor from Pittsburgh who flew down on his own coin and had been working there all week 6:30am to 8:00pm.

This morning the clinic really had very few patients - most people were waiting for their debit cards or transferring out to outlying housing. The few patients I did encounter were all very nice, polite, and appreciative of the help they were getting.

All in all, I have nothing but praise for the Harris County Hospital District (funny, I used to hate it when I worked there) and for the City of Houston. Let J Jackson, A Sharpton, H Dean try to explain how this Red City is doing so much despite Katrina being a race issue.