Collaboration in Response to Disaster - Typhoon Yolanda and an Integrative Model

An Israeli medical relief team that usually deploys a freestanding, self-sufficient field hospital found in the Philippines that when a local facility is partly functional, there are important short- and long-term benefits to full integration with the local units. The powerful typhoon that struck the Philippines on November 8, 2013, was the strongest in local history, causing massive destruction and affecting 25 million people.(1) More than 5000 people were confirmed dead, 22,000 were still reported missing when our team arrived in the country, and many others had lost their homes. The damage to the infrastructure left many areas without running water and electricity and caused total devastation in others. Some hospitals were shut down altogether, and some continued to work at partial capacity, leaving many of the injured without access to medical assistance. Various countries and relief organizations responded ...