Study: 6,000 physicians displaced by Katrina

A new study by a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill looks at the impact of Hurricane Katrina on physicians in the southeast. About 6,000 doctors in 10 counties and parishes in Mississippi and Louisiana have been displaced as a consequence of Hurricane Katrina. That, as far as anybody can guess, makes the storm responsible for the largest mass displacement of physicians ever in the US. Study author Dr. Thomas Ricketts of the UNC School of Public Health said he thinks many will decide to stay wherever they end up. According to Ricketts, more than half of the doctors are specialists. The study also notes that 1,300 medical students at Louisiana State University and Tulane University have been forced to transfer to new schools.

- see this story from the AP