Operation Medicine Delivery

A new strategy for distributing medicine to the public in an emergency will be given its first full-scale test on May 6 in the Twin Cities.

On that day, approximately 40 letter carriers will make an unusual Sunday morning run through selected neighborhoods in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the suburbs of Robbinsdale and Crystal. Local law enforcement will provide escorts for the postal delivery teams during the exercise, and would serve in the same role during a real emergency.

The carriers will leave a simulated supply of the antibiotic doxycycline – in the form of an empty pill bottle – at each residential address. About 37,000 households are expected to receive the simulated meds.

Dubbed “Operation Medicine Delivery,” the exercise is the first full scale test of the Comprehensive Postal Plan for the Twin Cities, which has been in place since February 2010. The Postal Plan represents the culmination of a multi-year planning effort that began in 2004.  The project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and is a joint effort of DHHS, the Postal Service, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and local public health, emergency management and law enforcement agencies.

The Postal Plan is part of the Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI), a program for quickly providing medicine to residents of major metropolitan areas in an emergency. CRI might be activated, for example, in response to a large scale airborne anthrax attack.

What do you think of the emergency medicine distribution plan? Comment here.