Concerned for Charity Hospital

2006-03-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

Blanco Bests Bobby from Nation Review on Line

Remember Governor Blanco Charity and the state of Louisiana Health Care won you the Election.

Governor Blanco having Charity Hospital to your back and making this comment "I've got my own power-packed people endorsing me, and I think they know how to get the vote out," Blanco said, prompting a roar from about 20 public officials standing behind her outside Charity Hospital on Tulane Avenue. "I'll fall back on my friends that cross all kinds of boundaries."-- Jumping party lines, Nagin backs Jindal --JORDAN, BROUSSARD SUPPORT BLANCO--11/04/03By Frank Donze and Brian Thevenot Staff writers/The Times-Picayune

I guess Charity Hospital is great for campaigns, what about the years in between????

2006-03-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

Don Smithburg and the Bullet Proof Tents--courtesy of NPR on Oct 7, 2005 click link

Don where are the hard sided ICU, OPERATING ROOMS, and other things promised. MR. Smithburg I guess the protection against falling bullets during New Years was impressive. If the tents are so bullet proof, why are they housed in doors????? You listen to this interview and all you can think is only in Louisiana. Our people deserver better and more competent leadership.

2006-03-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

Congradulations to the Rally to Save Charity Organizers they made the Fox News Ticker click link to see their site.

Great job everyone, looking forward to your future projects. Our projects are independant of each other but with the same goal opening Charity Hospital.

2006-03-26T14:57:00.000-08:00

The Asbestos Myth. EPA Link please read

If you think your home may have asbestos, don't panic!

Usually it is best to leave asbestos material that is in good condition alone. Generally, material in good condition will not release asbestos fiber. There is no danger unless fibers are released and inhaled into the lungs.

Do not cut, rip, or sand asbestos-containing materials.

Leave undamaged materials alone and, to the extent possible, prevent them from being damaged, disturbed, or touched. Periodically inspect for damage or deterioration. Discard damaged or worn asbestos gloves, stove-top pads, or ironing board covers. Check with local health, environmental, or other appropriate officials to find out about proper handling and disposal procedures. If asbestos material is more than slightly damaged, or if you are going to make changes in your home that might disturb it, repair or removal by a professional is needed. Before you have your house remodeled, find out whether asbestos materials are present.

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Asbestos remediation is common practic in the United States it can be dealt with by various means. KATRINA DID NOT CAUSE CHARITY TO GROW ASBESTOS. FACT EVEN IF THE BUILDING WERE TORN DOWN TOMORROW BEFORE THE BUILDING COULD BE BROUGHT DOWN ALL THE ASBESTOS WOULD HAVE TO BE REMOVED. SO IN ORDER TO MAKE THE BUILDING SAVE TO TEAR DOWN YOU MUST REMOVE THE ASBESTOS. IF THE ASBESTOS IS GONE THEN YOU CAN OCCUPY THE BUILDING OR BETTER YET IF YOU ENCAPSOLATE AND MITIGATE THE ASBESTOS THREAT YOU CAN LEAVE IT THERE AS LONG AS IT CAN NOT BECOME AIRBORNE. ASBESTOS THAT IS INTACT IS NOT A HEALTH HAZARD.

2006-03-26T11:00:00.000-08:00

Open request for photograhs and documents pertaining the state of Charity Hospital or threats to not speak against LSU assesment.

Dear Reader,

I know as many of you do that it can be tough to fight an up hill battle against those incharge, while preserving your economic future.

This site has an open door policy for any and all verifiable photographs or documents pertaining to closing Charity Permanently based on Katrina damage. Any documents that show a pattern of pressure to lie federal investigators or hind from the press actual damage will be posted here.

Mr. Smithburg we do ask that you do not fire any employees for telling the truth and presenting alternatives to tent based care. It is highly distressing that Dr. Moises is on public record as having to quit his employment to speak at the rally. We call on you to go on record with the press and publically provide written documentation that ensures that all employees will have the right to speak freely and present options for opening Charity at the soonest possible date. Mr. Smithburg we demand that you ensure publically that there will be no pressure put on employees, students, conractors, citizens, or faculty who are trying to get the hospital running and treating patients again.

We ask that you understand that truth should never be punished. Friendly advise Mr. Smithburg you need to allow a second opinion, as the scret nature of the closing of the hospital is not sitting well with many people who are in the end your boss, they are called tax payers.

To our state wide politicians we ask that you hold Mr. Smithburg accountable and make him to present publically for all to see the Walter Adams report. Preferably this document should be available for down load in PDF form, and should be accompanied by the FEMA assessment documenting only 23 million in damages versus Mr. Smithburg's total loss estimate. Then as good steward of the public trust allow independant review of Walter Adams report. Because if you do not, under stand this we will hold you accountable at the ballot box.

Remember Charity Hospital is owned by the tax payer, it does need restructuring and better business practices--but it is our hospital.

All materials should be emailed to concernedforcharity@yahoo.com

2006-03-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

The LSU system requires high-level clearance before any staff member may speak to the press, but spokesman Marvin McGraw said there was no specific directive barring statements at the rally. (What are they hiding and why?) click to read whole Time Picayune Article

Dr. James Moises, a former Charity emergency room physician, said the rally was called to press two demands on state officials: to call in a new, independent group of engineers and architects to assess the feasibility of reopening the aging 21-story hospital, and to provide a public forum for the community to make its wishes known about how the state should deliver health care services to poor citizens in post-Katrina New Orleans.

"Let's get some independent architects and engineers in there," Moises said in an interview. "We need a public forum. Let's put all of this on the table."

While it might take hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate Charity in its entirety, Moises said he thinks a flurry of repairs could have significant portions of the hospital up and running within several weeks. (quote from Time Picayune article click above and read)
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So to tell the truth and challenge the lie that Charity was totally destroyed a quality Dr. had to quit in order speak at the rally. Mr. Smithburg needs to understand just as you would not pull your loved one off of life support without a second opinion, Charity should not be condemned based on an LSU funded engineering firm--it is called conflict of interest. Mr. Smithburg needs to provide the full engineering report for public review. Mr. Smithburg also needs to understand he is a state employee and can be terminated for poor performance. Mr. Smithburg for a nation that put a man on the moon it is a mazing we can not clean a hospital in six months time. Mr. Smithburg either step down or roll up your sleeves people are suffering and dying. Tulane is opened and they got water in the patient treatment area unlike Charity Hospital.

For my fellow reader we need to change the culture of the threat to hide the truth, none of our Preciously few doctors should be forced to quit to challenge wrong decisions by Mr. Smithburg that are costing the lives and hindering the education of medical professionals in this state.

We need to remember if you help yourself it is easier to get help from others, playing musical tents aint gonna inspire anyone to give Mr. Smithburg more money to manage. Results Mr. Smithburg that is all that matters. Is Elmwood going to open April one, oh no another missed dead line, a few hundred thousand dollars wasted, and more suffering of people in need. Wow this progressive management.

2006-03-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

Doctors, patients protest state refusal to reopen major hospital

By BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS — Doctors, former patients and preservationists rallied outside shuttered Charity Hospital on Saturday, praising the iconic building's legacy of treating the poor and critically injured while protesting the state's intention to keep it closed for good. Click link above

2006-03-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

Reminder Rally for Charity Hospital New Orleans 2PM

2006-03-25T05:34:00.000-08:00

"If you have cancer, my advice is move. If you need dialysis, go. Get out of here. If you have any major illness and are uninsured, we cannot possibly accommodate your needs. You will die sooner if you stay here," said Dr. Peter DeBlieux, the head of emergency services for what remains of Charity Hospital.

2006-03-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

Rally Tomorrow March 25, 2006 at Charity 2pm to save the hospital.

2006-03-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

Charity hospital funds run short
Services, beds could be cut to meet $212M shortfall

You lost you home, your job, your career, your insurance, and oh by the way the safety net you could go for medical care is gone. This is what is happening in Louisiana. Our governor is cutting health care, cutting the Charity Hospital system, refusing to open Charity Hospital New Orleans because she will save 200 million by abandoning the hospital and seeing patients in tents, and aboval she is going to open the University Hospital which DID GET WATER IN THE PATIENT CARE AREA DURING KATRINA.

Dont worry it the private hospitals are going to take up the slack, even though they themselves are stuggling from lack of beds and funding.

WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP. GOVERNOR BLANCO YOU RAN SAYING BOBBY JINDAL WOULD CLOSE THE CHARITY HOSPITAL SYSTEM, WELL WE ALL KNOW WHAT YOU DID WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO SAVE THE HOSPITALS IN THEIR HOUR OF NEED. YOUR BOND COMMISSION FUNDED A HORSE BARN AND REMODELED THE 6TH FLOOR OF YOUR OFFICES.

Heaven forbid Governor a major health crisis occurs, when the rest of the nation is preparing for bird flu your cutting the one tool at your disposal to respond to the people's needs. Unlike Katrina you have been warned and the voter will not be forgiving of if our people are denied emergency resources again.

2006-03-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

Well the tents have moved again this time to shopping center less than a mile from Charity.
The shopping center was not ready and when profiled by Meg Farris Dr. Deblieux relates how the facility had no running water, toilets, and the Cheif of Emergency Medicine Dr. VanMeter was hanging sheet rock. Meg Farris's report

Wait a second here are we running a hospital system or general contracting firm, doctor should be treating people making them better not having cobble together substandard health care facilities. Especially when for the same amount of effort the Main Charity Hospital ER could have been opened on a temporary basis by now.

Governor Blanco should understand the perception of musical tents does not show progress or make the people of Louisiana look like good stewards of the Federal Treasury. It is time she take the lead. Nation wide the possible threat of a bird flu epidemic is gaining traction but in New Orleans we can not even provide basic medical care. God help us if a normal much less a bird flu out break were to occur.

2006-02-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

A Crisis of Emergency Care--Note all links to news articles are from the Public Record, Researched, and Obtained using Google.

New Orleans' Emergency Rooms Overtaxed

Must listen to the audio about the plight of New Orleans Health Care. Is this America? Opening Charity could help allieviate this sitution. The Spirit of Charity Tent Emergency Clinic, East Jefferson, West Jefferson, Ochsner, Childrens, Touro Emergency Room, and EMS professionals are real heroes

Patients Needing Care Overwhelm New Orleans's Hospital System

Charity Hospital, once a magnet for some of the most severe medical emergencies - and for patients least likely to have insurance - is shuttered, leaving a jury-rigged emergency room under tents within the convention center. Dr. DeBlieux said 100 to 200 patients a day arrived with complaints ranging from major trauma or strokes to breaks and sprains....

"We have to wait hours to offload a patient," Dr. Saussy said. "That means we're not going to have that unit available to answer the next 911 call."

Mardi Gras Medical

(Tourist take Heed)
In two weeks, Mardi Gras parades will begin rolling in New Orleans, bringing revelers intent on proving they can still party in the Big Easy. Unfortunately, New Orleans is down to one working adult hospital. That is a recipe for disaster.

The city needs this celebration both emotionally and financially, but its stricken hospital system requires help to ensure that it is a safe one. Doctors say the biggest problem is facilities, specifically hospital beds. There are no psychiatric beds available for mentally ill patients. And the lack of primary care means emergency rooms are swamped with people suffering from less pressing ailments. Emergency patients in Orleans and other parishes nearby are currently stuck on ambulance stretchers for a minimum of 45 minutes and up to six hours while waiting for treatment, according to city statistics.

It's not enough. So far, the city has been unable to scrape together even small additions to prepare for Mardi Gras. Officials have asked for tents to expand the convention-center clinic and a mobile medical unit with 60 more beds for patients. But that is where the bureaucratic morass begins. City requests must be sent through the State of Louisiana, which forwards them to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for consideration. FEMA is still considering the request for the mobile unit, even as the clock is ticking down.

2006-02-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

Charity in the News

State won't use FEMA money to renovate Charity Hospital

The State of Louisiana will not spend the $23 million it will be given by FEMA to renovate Charity Hospital, according to an official with the system.

The money is far short of the $700 million the LSU system is seeking to replace Charity with a more modern, but smaller hospital.

Iwo Jima's Damage Control Team Making an Impact in New Orleans
Armed with two of the ship’s P-100 and four electric submersible pumps, Iwo’s DCs have already removed 40,000 gallons of water from the flooded basement of the Medical Center of Louisiana’s Charity Hospital downtown.

“The waterline was almost at the top of the basement when they began dewatering,” said Charity Hospital Staff Member Dr. Jeff Johnson. “I am amazed at how fast they’ve been able to remove so much water. I didn’t expect this much progress for months. Amazing.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” said Chief Damage Controlman (SW/AW) Fred Clemmons. “[Our Sailors] have the talent, desire and motivation to get this job done.”

The dewatering team will work through the night, Clemmons added, removing water from the hospital at a rate of 1,900 gallons per minute. The hospital’s basement is expected to be completely drained by Sept. 14.

Building repairs ranked by urgency

BATON ROUGE -- Prisons outrank charity hospitals, and repairing the Superdome is more urgent than fixing university buildings, according to a list that ranks the state's priorities for repairing government property damaged by Hurricane Katrina.....

Some buildings on the list might not get repaired at all. The federal government will pay to restore government buildings to their pre-storm condition, but won't pay for upgrades. "If you had a sorry facility before the storm, they will restore you back to your sorry facility," Jones said.

In the case of Charity Hospital, for example, there is broad consensus among administration officials that the building was in such disrepair before Katrina that it would make little sense to rebuild it as a hospital. The state could instead use the repair money toward building a new hospital.

"If I have anything to say about it, we're not going to rebuild Charity," Jones said.

Financing plan for LSU hospitals and health programs not complete

Dec 27, 2005 BATON ROUGE -- Financial relief for LSU's hurricane-ravaged medical school and public hospitals in New Orleans is a work in progress, despite earlier assurances from Gov. Kathleen Blanco's top budget adviser that a funding plan would be in place this month.

Charity given 11 days to vacate Convention Center

Tents serve as a mini-hospital and treat nearly 300 patients a day, but now the Convention Center wants the trauma clinic out so construction crews can move in and begin repairs.

Public health care system in N.O. nearly broke say managers

The State of Louisiana wants to tear down the buildings that housed Charity and University hospitals and replace them with a single, state-of-the-art building. The cost of that ambitious project is estimated to be $560 million and so far, FEMA said they system is only eligible for $23 million to cover equipment and damage Charity’s basement.

Some doctors have told Eyewitness News that the hospitals merely need to be fixed and renovated, but either way the negotiations are slow and no money has been sent by the government.

2006-02-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

My position

My position is that Charity may very well need to be torn down or significantly remodeled, in the near future. However, in the near term people must be provided with effective and efficient medical services.

Our people black, white, hispanic, asian, cajun, creole, Democrat, Republican, and Independent need medical services. The question is why as a state can we not buckle down and do what is needed now, then create a vision going foreward.

Remember no matter what happens a new hospital is a minimum of 3 to 5 years a way. This is a near term problem.

2006-02-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

These photographs were taken immediately after the hurricane, since then the governor has allowed the people of South East Louisiana to seek care in tents or wait for care sometimes as long as 24 hours for medical care. This is not a Republican, Democratic, or Independent issue this is an issue of the Governor not being willing to make executive decisions in the best interest of the people of the state and save the state hospital. Instead she wants to blame FEMA and President Bush for not caring for the people when she is in direct control of Charity Hospital. Now she is allowing her people to open University Hospital which did have flooding in the Emergency Room rather reopening Charity at least in the short term to ensure people can get quality medical care in New Orleans. Note the Hancock County Hospital in Mississippi lost its whole first floor and was operational by the end of January, just Google it and you will see the facts.

Note Charity's basement was drained on September 14, 2005 by the USS Iwa Jima's damage control team. As for the asbestos in the basement of the building, the basement can be sealed off from the rest of the building in the short term allowing for people to be cared for in the building. Instead according to WWLTV the tent hospitals might be moved from the Convention Center to Grocery Stores. The Blanco administration will not even attempt to do what is right for the people of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana. Remember 70% of the doctors who chose to stay after graduation in Louisiana trained at Charity can we as state afford to loose this resource. As the state of health care in New Orleans so goes the state, too many of our professionals train there state wide.
This is state resource, when FEMA turns down a full buyout of the hospital what does Blanco's administration do it moves into the most vulnerable of the two state hospitals in New Orleans to flooding. This is a typical Louisiana temper tantrum you don t get your way so you deny services and tell the feds you need more money. After Katrina as people have lost jobs and insurance Charity is needed more than ever. The people of this state own this hospital, and deserve a second public transparent independent opinion of the damages. Our people are suffering yet the Governor can spend $600,000 to fix her office while the people of South East Louisiana can not get timely medical care, and surely do not have access to a functioning trauma center. Instead our state is begging FEMA for another mobile hospital unit to care for the expected rise in demand for hospital services during Mardi Gras. Even if a new hospital is needed it will take 3-5 years to build we need to do battle to save the lives of our people with what we got, not what wish for now. "While people die Blanco can not decide" this her leadership style.

To give you the mindset of our current administration these quote from Mr. Jerry Jones ( the man who approved the $600,000 walnut paneling and granite counter top remodel of governors office on the basis of safety hazards) says it all,

1. " Some buildings on the list might not get repaired at all. The
federal government will pay to restore government buildings to
their pre-storm condition, but won't pay for upgrades. "If you
had a sorry facility before the storm, they will restore you back
to your sorry facility," Jones said."
2. " In the case of Charity Hospital, for example, there is broad
consensus among administration officials that the building was in
such disrepair before Katrina that it would make little sense to
rebuild it as a hospital. The state could instead use the repair
money towards a new building."
3. "If I have anything to say about it, we're not going to rebuild
Charity", Jones said

Quotes from Febuary 3, 2006 Times Picayune article, "Building repair ranked by Urgency", Jan Moller author

*Note all photographs supplied by out of state rescue worker.

I guess the people who have nothing now don't deserve pre-Katrina health care.

Sincerely,

A concerned Louisianian