was the 1st NOLA hospital evacuated the Frist family one?

[bobbieinok]

read this somewhere

[whistle]

1. No shit....do you have a link possibily?

[bobbieinok]

7. found this.......the claim was made in 1 of the 1st 50 posts at salon's

tabletalk forum 'Katrina Myths and Facts' in the WH folder

one possible source I found googling katrina and HCA hospitals in NOLA

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/caldwell120905.html

in the excellent article New Orleans: the Making of an Urban Catastrophe

....

Race and class divided even the sick. Tenet paid private contractors to evacuate its hospitals, and so did HCA to evacuate Tulane Hospital that it runs -- well before Charity Hospital, the region's trauma hospital whose patients are poor and overwhelmingly black, received any help.

more....

[rainbow4321]

8. Charity vs (Frist's) Tulane evacuation article

And according to this article/quote from docs, Tulane got to evac their "walkie-talkie" patients before Charity got to send their critical ones..."walkie talkie" being a slang used in hospitals for patients who can get around by themselves, needing very little or no assistance, low acuity.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3358515#


The hospital withstood the initial onslaught of the storm the next day relatively well. Virtually the entire city lost power early on, but the hospital's emergency generators in the basement kicked on. Windows blew out. Water driven into the building by the ferocious winds poured down through the interior, dropping ceiling tiles and light fixtures.

"We came to the conclusion that if we were going to get out, we were going to have to get ourselves out," he said. Some residents and nurses in his unit started getting "pissed" and frantically made calls on their almost useless cell phones to news media. They reached CNN, which broadcast the interview live on its Web site. It was seen by the owner of an air-ambulance service.

Among the doctors and nurses who had dedicated themselves to treating the most vulnerable, there was a growing unease that Charity was not high on the priority list. The private hospitals were being steadily evacuated. A stream of helicopters was landing at nearby Tulane. But not even a third of Charity's patients and only a few of its staff had gotten out.

DeBoisblanc was getting frantic, ballistic. He was shouting at people on the helipad as machines landed and took off. He was demanding to know why able-bodied people were being flown off the roof while his patients lay dying on the concrete less than 100 yards away. "I saw 100 helicopters land and take off and people walking onto those helicopters ... and fly off while I'm there on the rooftop bagging critically ill patients," he said.

[whistle]

17. Frist's Tulane Hospital did none of those heroics, but instead

...dumped their most critically ill patients on Charity's emergency doorsteps....plus Frist's hospital saved all of their billing and insurance files, just to make sure they would get reimbursed for the transfers.

[tx_dem41]

18. Tulane Hospital did incredible heroics....and they did not...

dump critically ill patients at Charity's emergency doorsteps.

Do you know anyone that works at either hospital? Please ...I'm eager to know.

[whistle]

23. NBC news reports during the hurricane implied that and I haven't

...heard or seen anything to the contrary since. Do you have examples of Tulane heroics with their charity patients? As for Charity hospital, I said they performed in the time of need.

[tx_dem41]

24. Yes, see my post #19.

My father-in-law is Chief of Staff at Tulane Hospital. He and his staff were there for 10 days, 24/7, until the generators failed. He got all premature babies at both Tulane and Charity out after about 36 hours. He worked with Charity because the state did not provide the promised helicopters. Tulane opened their helopad to Charity, helped them evacuate their patients (across a river of chesthigh water formally known as Tulane Avenue) and got all the patients out of both hospitals.

[JPZenger]

31. Confirmed on Anderson Cooper's CNN Show

Last week, Anderson Cooper interviewed staff of Charity Hospital. They confirmed the story stated above that Tulane's more stable patients were evacuated before Charity's critical patients - when Charity's critical patients were waiting on the same helipad. They even had video of the Charity staff trying to keep their patients alive on the helipad - some died while waiting. The parent company of Tulane had paid for the helicopters.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. The Frist Hospital is Tulane

Tulane and Charity are the "Big Hospitals" in NO - the others are (were when I lived there) much smaller.

[ikojo]

3. Isn't there a Baptist hospital system in New Orleans and

does Ochsner Health still exist or has it been gobbled up? I once worked for an insurance company that processed claims for Avondale shipyards and saw many claims from Ochsner Clinics and a Baptist hospital.

[SoCalDem]

4. Oschler was just changed to Lindy Boggs Hospital

and that name change affected the evacuation.. 911 and police did not know it was really Baptist hospital. They lost many patients 17+ because they were not evacuated until much later

[WiseButAngrySara]

5. No, Oshner is a fairly large Hospital and Clnic. The Mercy Hospital

was recently changed to Lindy Boggs (Catholic I thought, but maybe Baptist) Did Frist train at Tulane/Charity?

[SoCalDem]

6. 60 minutes did a story on it with Dr Oschner, who was there

All I know is what she said in the piece.. She was the one who said their name was changed a few days before the storm hit:shrug:

It changed from oschner to Lindy Boggs.

[WiseButAngrySara]

12. I saw part of that. From what I remember, her father (maybe grandfather)

was the Oschner of Oschner Hospital, but she worked free lance E.R. at Mercy/Boggs. I might be wrong, but Oschner and Mercy are two separate hospitals...Oschner was fairly large and had quite a few residents, like Tulane and Charity.

[WiseButAngrySara]

13. Lindy Boggs was Mercy...

ABOUT LINDY BOGGS MEDICAL CENTER

Lindy Boggs Medical Center, part of Tenet Louisiana, has 188 beds and is located at 301 N. Jefferson Davis Parkway in New Orleans, La.

The hospital has been serving the medical and health care needs of the New Orleans community since the 1920s.

Specialty areas include orthopedics, cardiology, Transplant Institute of New Orleans, diagnostic services, emergency medicine and rehabilitation.

To learn more about Lindy Boggs Medical Center, visit www.lindyboggsmedctr.com.

This hospital was formerly known as Memorial Medical Center, Mercy Campus.

[MercutioATC]

9. Tulane was NOT evacuated early...

I know a doctor who was there. Tulane wasn't evacuated until September 2.

[bobbieinok]

10. but was it the 1st?? apparently well before Charity (mainly poor)?

I have no personal info about this, no friends or relatives involved. I read the claim and wondered if it was correct.

[MercutioATC]

11. They were evacuated on the same day.

[WiseButAngrySara]

14. Anderson Cooper and Gupta did extensive coverage on this. Charity

was evacuated long after Tulane...I paid close attention because I worked at both TMC and Charity in 1994.

[Spazito]

16. From what the Doctor Gupta, who was at Charity, reporting for CNN

had reported Tulane evacuated it's non-essential staff while critical care patients at Charity were left waiting, it was obscene. He was totally disgusted and couldn't believe it.

Here are some snips from a Sept 2 article re this:

Remaining staff members were to be evacuated Friday from Tulane University Hospital, said Jeff Prescott, spokesman for Hospital Corporation of America, which operates the hospital.

Helicopters have been landing on Tulane's parking deck to evacuate that hospital and Charity, which is across the street. Tulane has contracted about 20 helicopters for the evacuations, Prescott said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/02/katrina.hospitals/

Charity was evacuated on Sept 3:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.hospitals/

[rainbow4321]

35. From a Charity ICU doc/ blogger who was there

http://www.chestnet.org/patients/katrina/index.php

The sadness is felt because valuable time was lost both due to the anemic early response and because valuable resources were misused. I personally witnessed dozens and dozens of helicopters, many military, land and fly away with able bodied citizens while patients died on the roof top. And sadly, many of those able-bodied citizens were physicians.

[tx_dem41]

19. My father-in-law is Chief of Staff at Tulane....it was evacuated

along with Charity on September 2nd. The state was to provide helicopters that did not arrive when promised. It is true that Sen. Frist was contacted to help get the helicopters to Tulane AND Charity. They arrived within an hour after the call was made. Tulane staff along with Charity staff assisted in evacuating the Charity patients.

[bobbieinok]

21. so Dr Gupta 'lied'?????

[tx_dem41]

25. God forbid a journalist would lie! You're saying my father-in-law

is lying, because it doesn't fit your political view. Goodbye.

[rainbow4321]

28. And Charity/University staff had to call the media for help

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168325,00.html


The hospitals were desperate for help. On Thursday, doctors from Charity and University, the city's other public hospital, had called the Associated Press pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.

Charity Hospital is across the street from Tulane University Medical Center, a private facility that had almost completed evacuating more than 1,000 patients and family members Thursday.

On Thursday, Dr. Lee Hamm, chairman of medicine at Tulane University, had taken a canoe from Tulane to check on conditions at the two public hospitals and had described a harrowing situation.

Relatives of Dr. Hamm reported that they received a text message from him around midday Friday, confirming that evacuations were taking place at Charity and nearby University Hospital, where more than 1,000 patients, family members, staff and people from the community had huddled.

[tx_dem41]

29. So you believe the "integrity" of Fox News?!? I'll have to remember...

that. Tulane AND Charity evacuated, finishing Friday, using helicopters chartered by Tulane (HCA), and Tulane's helopad, and with the joint work of Tulane and Charity staff (across not a "street" as you call it...but a five foot deep river).

[rainbow4321]

30. And also please remember these other 3 sources

I could Google other sources for what seems like forever...all with what seems like the same message: Tulane took out it's less critical patients and it's staff/family as Charity's critically ill patients lay dying on rooftops/in the hospital. Charity staff had to rely on media phone calls and found a helicopter for themselves. Tulane apaprently didn't offer it's helicopter services to Charity's dying until Tulane's staff and family were evacuated.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/hurricanekatrina/2002466134_kathospital02.html


Doctors at two hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press yesterday morning pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.

"We have been trying to call the mayor's office, we have been trying to call the governor's office ... we have tried to use any inside pressure we can. We are turning to you. Please help us," said Dr. Norman McSwain, chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital, the larger of two public hospitals. Charity Hospital is across the street from Tulane University Medical Center, a private facility that has almost completed evacuating more than 1,000 patients and family members, he said.

No such resources are available for Charity, which has about 250 patients, or University Hospital several blocks away, which has about 110 patients. Tulane's heliport is available if patients from the public hospitals could be brought there, McSwain said. "We need coordinated help from the government," he said.

Yesterday afternoon, the U.S. Surgeon General's Office said five private helicopters had been secured to start taking patients out of Charity Hospital. Efforts to get more information from Charity or University hospitals were unsuccessful because phone lines were jammed.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/03/hospitals_struggling_to_evacuate_patients/

A very different scenario seemed to have unfolded across the street at Tulane University Hospital, a private facility operated by one of the country's largest for-profit hospital companies, the Hospital Corporation of America. Even before the storm, which flooded the hospital in 6 to 8 feet of water, the company began arrangements to rent 20 private helicopters from around the country.

By yesterday, the hospital had evacuated 200 patients and 1,100 relatives and employees. The hospital also flew in its own security force, satellite phones, food, water, batteries, and linens, said spokesman Jeff Prescott. He said that, on Thursday, Charity employees began bringing their 50 most critically ill patients across the street to Tulane, which evacuated them.

He said the company turned the helicopters over to Charity yesterday. He said Tulane University Hospital sent them food and water during the week, but, he said, ''we had to get our patients out."

At one point, state and local authorities tried to commandeer Tulane's helicopters.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3358515


Among the doctors and nurses who had dedicated themselves to treating the most vulnerable, there was a growing unease that Charity was not high on the priority list. The private hospitals were being steadily evacuated. A stream of helicopters was landing at nearby Tulane. But not even a third of Charity's patients and only a few of its staff had gotten out.


"We came to the conclusion that if we were going to get out, we were going to have to get ourselves out," he said.

Some residents and nurses in his unit started getting "pissed" and frantically made calls on their almost useless cell phones to news media. They reached CNN, which broadcast the interview live on its Web site. It was seen by the owner of an air-ambulance service.

The man called deBoisblanc and said he had four helicopters on the way and that if the doctor could get four of the sickest patients to a helipad, he would evacuate them.

The closest helipad was on the roof of the parking garage at Tulane University Hospital about two blocks away through chest-deep water. DeBoisblanc managed to flag down a passing boat and hitched a ride to Tulane, where he secured permission to use the helipad.

[tx_dem41]

32. That's fine...believe the MSM...it would be a first at DU.

Don't believe the people that were there, from which you have heard three firsthand accounts on this thread. It doesn't fit your political worldview so...Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil.

Have fun.

[bunny planet]

15. Frist family hospital was evacuated while another hospital across the

street was not, and left in the dark. Poor folks in that hospital apparently. I can't remember where I saw or read it, maybe Olbermann reported it. I'll try and remember.

[tx_dem41]

20. Please read my post #19.

Thank you.

[bunny planet]

36. Yes, I did. I sometimes post and then read the thread afterwards,seeing

the answers to my questions.

I've got to stop doing that.
:evilgrin:

[Sgent]

22. Tulane

went out and hired a fleet of private helicopters, bringing them in from around the region.

They also evacuated 50 of the most critical patients from Charity.

[tx_dem41]

26. Thank you.

See my post #19 for my background.

[JPZenger]

27. Same Few Companies Were Supposed to Evacuate Everyone

A New York Times investigative reporter was interviewed yesterday on NPR. He said that every hospital and nursing home had to prove they had a signed contract with a company for evacuation. However, only a few companies were involved - they signed contracts with everyone. When the evacuation time came, they were overwhelmed.

Also, the hospitals and nursing homes repeatedly are saying that FEMA commandeered their helicopters and buses. FEMA denied this to NPR. There are claims that FEMA commandeered any vehicle that came into New Orleans to evacuate relatively healthy people from the Superdome, while very sick people were not evacuated from the hospitals and nursing homes. One hospital for the poor, quoted in CNN.com, said that FEMA commandeered the delivery of diesel fuel they needed to run their emergency generators. (Note - the hospitals had already cancelled elective surgery, so their only patients were very sick ones).

CNN had a scene of the aftermath of one nursing home. The home was not flooded, but was surrounded by floodwaters. The staff was told to put the residents out in front of the home, and they would be picked up. They never were. They died in their wheelchairs in the parking lot. Apparently, someone had stopped off and delivered some water and MREs, and kept going.

NPR also said that past evacuations had been a problem. Some people were evacuated from nursing homes in the past had almost died on buses - and then the storm was a dud. Therefore, the nursing homes and hospitals did not want to evacuate until they were sure it was going to hit them.

[JPZenger]

33. Some helicopters couldnt' evacuate seriously ill

Tulane said that some of the helicopters that arrived were not equipped to transport seriously ill patients - they could only take people who could sit in seats. They said that is why some of their less ill patients were evacuated before Charity's critically ill patients.

[JPZenger]

34. Frist and Health Care Corp. of America

From an old post on the United Steelworkers of America website:

"Senator Frist is the son of the late Thomas Frist, Sr., who founded Columbia Health Care Corporation of America (HCA), the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. His brother, Thomas H. Frist, Jr., is the former Chief Executive Officer of that giant health care company, which has agreed to pay fines and penalties of more than $1.7 billion for systematically looting the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Senator Frist is one of the richest members of the Senate, and his personal fortune is linked directly to the company which his father founded and his brother ran. As Majority Leader, Senator Frist will be in a key position to influence any Medicare legislation, including prescription drug coverage, considered by the Senate. "Putting Senator Frist in charge of health care legislation is much like giving the fox a free run of the chicken coop," says Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, who predicts that, "any bill he allows to come to the floor is sure to benefit providers over patients."