Suit challenges closing of hospital for the poor in New Orleans
01/17/2008 21:18
Suit challenges closing of hospital for the poor in
New Orleans
1/17/2008, 4:26 p.m. CST
By CAIN BURDEAU
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The closing of Charity Hospital, an Art Deco 20-story monolith in downtown New Orleans where the poor and mentally ill went for medical care, was carried out in an illegal sleight of hand after Hurricane Katrina hit and left scores of people unable to get treatment, a lawsuit contends.
The civil lawsuit — backed by civil rights groups, a handful of politicians, police and medical experts — was filed Thursday in state court by seven plaintiffs who say they've had difficulty getting timely and inexpensive treatment since the hospital was shut down.
The suit seeks class-action status.
The hospital, dubbed "Big Charity" because of its looming stature, was closed because officials with the Louisiana State University determined that it was too badly damaged by flood waters.
"The unlawful closure of Big Charity has had a devastating impact," the suit said. "Among other things, thousands of residents lack basic health care, the chronically ill go untreated, and critical specialty care is either delayed or unavailable."
A top official with LSU, which runs the system of hospitals for the poor in Louisiana, said the closing of Charity was inevitable because of Katrina.
"Unfortunately we don't control the weather," said Fred Cerise, the LSU System's vice president for health affairs and medical education. "LSU did not close the hospital, Katrina did. LSU did not have a choice."
He said that numerous studies, some even before Katrina hit, showed that Charity was in bad shape.
"I'm quite sure you would have heard an outcry from people if we had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on that facility," Cerise said.
Although the health-care system was crippled after Katrina, Cerise said it has improved considerably since the storm's landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and that a similar amount of money is being spent on the uninsured today as was spent before the storm, although care is more spread out to clinics and other facilities in the metropolitan area.
Supporters of reopening Charity described New Orleans as a city with a health care system in crisis, largely because Charity has been mothballed.
James Arey, commander of the New Orleans Police Department's crisis negotiation team, said Charity was a safe and predictable place for police to take mentally ill people before the storm.
By comparison, dealing with mentally ill people has become more risky and time-consuming because there are fewer hospitals that take psychiatric patients, he said.
"Often, the people at Charity knew the patients and the patients knew the medical staff," Arey said. "We didn't have wrestling matches in the emergency room because everybody knew everybody."
He added: "We are our brother's keeper and we have done a horrendous job post-Katrina."
Calvin Johnson, a recently retired criminal court judge who is representing the plaintiffs, said the situation is so bad that the parish prison is being used as a "detox facility ... a holding place for those suffering from mental illness."
1/17/2008, 4:26 p.m. CST
By CAIN BURDEAU
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The closing of Charity Hospital, an Art Deco 20-story monolith in downtown New Orleans where the poor and mentally ill went for medical care, was carried out in an illegal sleight of hand after Hurricane Katrina hit and left scores of people unable to get treatment, a lawsuit contends.
The civil lawsuit — backed by civil rights groups, a handful of politicians, police and medical experts — was filed Thursday in state court by seven plaintiffs who say they've had difficulty getting timely and inexpensive treatment since the hospital was shut down.
The suit seeks class-action status.
The hospital, dubbed "Big Charity" because of its looming stature, was closed because officials with the Louisiana State University determined that it was too badly damaged by flood waters.
"The unlawful closure of Big Charity has had a devastating impact," the suit said. "Among other things, thousands of residents lack basic health care, the chronically ill go untreated, and critical specialty care is either delayed or unavailable."
A top official with LSU, which runs the system of hospitals for the poor in Louisiana, said the closing of Charity was inevitable because of Katrina.
"Unfortunately we don't control the weather," said Fred Cerise, the LSU System's vice president for health affairs and medical education. "LSU did not close the hospital, Katrina did. LSU did not have a choice."
He said that numerous studies, some even before Katrina hit, showed that Charity was in bad shape.
"I'm quite sure you would have heard an outcry from people if we had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on that facility," Cerise said.
Although the health-care system was crippled after Katrina, Cerise said it has improved considerably since the storm's landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and that a similar amount of money is being spent on the uninsured today as was spent before the storm, although care is more spread out to clinics and other facilities in the metropolitan area.
Supporters of reopening Charity described New Orleans as a city with a health care system in crisis, largely because Charity has been mothballed.
James Arey, commander of the New Orleans Police Department's crisis negotiation team, said Charity was a safe and predictable place for police to take mentally ill people before the storm.
By comparison, dealing with mentally ill people has become more risky and time-consuming because there are fewer hospitals that take psychiatric patients, he said.
"Often, the people at Charity knew the patients and the patients knew the medical staff," Arey said. "We didn't have wrestling matches in the emergency room because everybody knew everybody."
He added: "We are our brother's keeper and we have done a horrendous job post-Katrina."
Calvin Johnson, a recently retired criminal court judge who is representing the plaintiffs, said the situation is so bad that the parish prison is being used as a "detox facility ... a holding place for those suffering from mental illness."