Hurricane Katrina

As if state healthcare administrators weren't facing enough problems already, they're now battling a lawsuit over free care provided after Hurricane Katrina. Doctors at a New Orleans-area hospital, West Jefferson Medical Center, have sued the state for $100 million. The 381 physicians bringing the suit argue that state officials should reimburse them for treating indigent patients, which they've done since August 2005 in the wake of the hurricane. The physicians estimate that 30 percent …

Hospitals in New Orleans are searching far and wide to fill major gaps in their nursing lineups, still struggling with shortages arising from mass departures after Hurricane Katrina. For example, Ochsner Medical Center-West Bank and West Jefferson Medical Center have been forced to fill the 100 vacancies at each hospital with contract workers from out of state. The two also share …

Louisiana legislators continued to debate fundamental issues of health system reform this week, as different factions with different philosophies on public health struggle to assert themselves. To date, Louisiana's legislators haven't been able to agree on the critical issue of how many uninsured patients the state, much less how to pay for their care. This has prevented legislators from having a productive discussion on how to overhaul the state's healthcare system, and whether to fund a …

Still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans health system still has such bad gaps in it that patients are dying needlessly, New Orleans medical executives told Congress this week. Among other problems, heart disease and cancer patients are getting inadequate care, psych patients aren't getting their meds, and deaths have increased by as much as 40 percent …

It's been 18 months since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, but 11 hospitals remain closed in the wake of the storm. Officials continue to argue over how the healthcare system should be reshaped, most notably over whether indigent care dollars should remain the Charity Hospital system or follow patients as part of an insurance scheme. Meanwhile, many of the city's …

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In New Orleans, the two owners of St. Bernard Parish nursing home have been indicted for the drowning deaths of 35 nursing home residents. The owners are accused of ignoring an evacuation order that could have saved residents' lives. "Katrina's massive storm surge flooded the one-story nursing home to the ceiling within 20 minutes, overwhelming the elderly residents, many of whom were confined to beds or wheelchairs."  Rescue workers saved 29 elderly patients but could not reach all …

Despite the fact that some Hurricane Katrina-affected regions lost half of their population after the disaster, all types of healthcare providers are in short supply for those who remain. This has led to long wait times, particularly for emergency care. A survey conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) reports that many Gulf Coast physicians think that their patients have been harmed by the long wait to receive treatment. Among their primary concerns: staffing …

Issues as diverse as Hurricane Katrina, Chinese use of steel and high oil and copper prices are impacting the cost of hospital construction in the midst of an industry-wide building boom. For about 20 years, hospital building costs rose only two to three percent a year. Since 2004, however, the cost of building a hospital has risen as much as ten percent a year, averaging "between $265 and $275 per square foot…up from less than $100 in 1995," according to the Birmingham Business …

A report in Modern Healthcare paints a grim picture of the healthcare system in the Gulf region, post Hurricane Katrina. Since being devastated by the storm last year, $100 billion in government aid has been sent to the affected areas. But little of that money has found its way into the area's ruined health system. "Seven of the 15 hospitals that shut down in the flooding remain closed, and the feds won't pay to rebuild them. Overcrowded clinics in trailers and a converted …