New Orleans hospitals need patients, money

[Trillo]

BATON ROUGE (Reuters) - New Orleans area hospitals, which struggled to operate just after Hurricane Katrina with little power and less security, now have a different problem, the government says -- they need patients to come back so they can stay in business.

...

"One of the concerns is if we don't bring back patients to support their activities, they may not be able to continue those activities," Adm. Craig Vanderwagen, the assistant surgeon general, said at a weekend briefing.

The situation is so bad, Vanderwagen said, the Public Health Service is looking at ways it can find healthcare workers displaced by the storm and bring them back to the city to ensure the hospitals can remain up and running.

But the chief executives of two of the five hospitals told Reuters on Monday that what they most need is financial assistance after an extended period with no revenue -- and if they do not get it within the next two to four weeks they will not be able to keep the doctors they need.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050912/ts_nm/hospitals_dc


Corporate's got to keep MONEY coming in.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Wet dream to privatize Charity Hospital

they got their wish... we woudl nto need this if we had National Heath care

[HereSince1628]

2. Somehow I think this is a problem which will fix itself if other problems

are fixed.

Such as figuring out how to bring the infrastructure on line that will enable residents back into the city.

[obxhead]

3. so how exactly

do patients without jobs pay for their services?

[AndyTiedye]

4. I'm Guessing There Are Still Plenty of Sick People in New Orleans

They may not have any way of getting to the hospital though.

[cyr330]

5. Hmmmm

I worked as an RN in New Orleans for a long time, and I've never seen a place as "pro-physician" as that city. Nurses get treated like shit while the hospitals fawn all over the physicans. I wonder who's going to benefit from federal aid if, indeed, aid is coming? I am certain it will be the physicians, while the nurses will be left to fend for themselves as usual. I would never work in that environment again; I have too much respect for myself as a professional to be treated like dirt.

[krkaufman]

6. If they want federal $$$$, they just need to buy an airplane or two...

... and recast themselves as an airline. Or maybe buy an oil well somewhere; *THEN* they wouldn't know WHAT to do w/ all the federal dollars flowing their way.