Tenet cleared of wrongdoing during Katrina

Louisiana's attorney general cleared ten hospitals in the New Orleans area of wrongdoing during Hurricane Katrina, saying there was no evidence that their negligence lead to the death of patients. Attorney General Charles Foti's probe into suspicious deaths will now focus on five hospitals in the area. According to Foti's office, 140 people died at hospitals and long-term care facilities during the storm.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Tenet Healthcare, the company that operates Memorial Medical Center, the facility where patients were allegedly euthanized at the height of the crisis, said the chain has been informed that it is no longer under investigation. Tenet also said the hospital's administration has been cleared. That suggests that authorities have decided to focus on Dr. Anna Pou, the physician identified by witnesses as the person at the hospital who gave patients lethal doses of morphine. Exactly what Tenet's liability may be under the circumstances remains uncertain.

- see this article from The Times-Picayune