Joining Forces in the Face of Hurricane Harvey

Once again, mother nature has humbled us by demonstrating the incredible force and destruction possible by a storm like Hurricane Harvey. On behalf of McKesson’s 75,000 employees, our hearts go out to those who have been impacted by this storm.

It’s times like these that I’m reminded of how healthcare is truly a 24/7/365 job. Over the past week, Texas’ hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, first-responders and their employees have been working tirelessly, and, in many cases, putting their own safety at risk to ensure uninterrupted care to patients in need. One of our pharmacy customers in Houston even traveled to his store by boat to retrieve infusion medicines from the second floor and delivered them to his patient by boat.

In the face of this tragic event, I’m tremendously proud of the unwavering commitment the McKesson team demonstrated to our customers. When our Conroe, TX pharmaceutical warehouse became significantly impacted by the hurricane, employees at nearby warehouses in Oklahoma City and Memphis sprang into action, filling medication orders and driving long distances to make deliveries so that our Texas customers – and their patients – received the medications they need. Likewise, with our Medical-Surgical warehouse in Houston inaccessible, teams at our Dallas, Kansas City and Atlanta warehouses stepped up to cover our Houston and coastal Texas accounts.

McKesson is proud to make a donation of $100,000 to the nonprofit Direct Relief for disaster relief services. McKesson is also providing $150,000 of medical supplies to the relief effort through World Vision – everything from band-aids to gloves to towels to diapers –to help our medical frontline access the materials they need. Finally, we raised the ceiling on our employee matching donation program specifically for donations to eligible non-profits and organizations providing emergency relief in your state. As of today, our employees have already given more than $25,000 in donations that have generated another $25,000 in McKesson matching donations, which makes me very proud.

 Unfortunately, this disaster is far from over. In the days, weeks and months to come, the same level of compassion, leadership and teamwork will be required to support our neighbors in Texas and Louisiana as they rebuild. For those interested in contributing financially, nonprofits such as Direct Relief are great places to start.