NEWS RELEASE
Committee on Energy and Commerce Democrats
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

Dingell, Stupak and Brown release GAO report:
Status of the Healthcare System in New Orleans
Approximately 6 Months After Hurricane Katrina

Senior Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce including John D. Dingell (MI), Bart Stupak (MI), and Sherrod Brown (OH) today released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the status of the healthcare system in the Gulf Coast region six months after being hit by Hurricane Katrina. The report found that the region is still facing considerable challenges with its healthcare infrastructure and much more work remains, specifically in providing sufficient access to emergency rooms, primary care, and trauma care centers.

This report is a partial response to the request made by the lawmakers last November (see link below). The report represents a six-month snapshot of the region’s healthcare system following the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina last August. It represents only the first phase of the continuing audit by GAO of this important subject.

“It is unacceptable that six months after Hurricane Katrina, people are still receiving healthcare services in mobile tents and old department stores,” said Dingell, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “Exactly how does the Secretary expect the Gulf Coast region to prepare for a potential flu pandemic or the next hurricane season given the current state of their healthcare system? Much of the region destroyed by Hurricane Katrina still faces major challenges and the Administration has yet to put forward a strategic plan for moving the region toward a solution.”

“This GAO report is a good first step in the continual process of tracking the return of quality health care to the New Orleans area. Health care is a basic right all Americans should be afforded. FEMA is supposed to assist in cutting through red tape and bureaucracy, not create red tape and barriers to health care. I will continue to work with the GAO and our colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee to track and assist with the rebuilding of the healthcare infrastructure in New Orleans,” said Stupak, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

“When hospital capacity is reduced by 80 percent, 3/4 of community clinics remain closed, and emergency patients wait two hours in an ambulance before seeing a doctor, you have a public health crisis on your hands,” said Brown, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health. “Planning delays place lives at risk. FEMA needs to break through the log-jam and do whatever is necessary to protect the health and safety of Gulf Coast residents.”

Among the key findings of the GAO report:

• Since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the healthcare infrastructure was severely damaged and the availability of health services declined significantly.
• The emergency departments that are open report increased demand and has led to decreased medical response such as slow unloading of patients from ambulances and housing patients in the emergency department because hospital beds are not available.
• The only Level I trauma unit in the area was closed, and the number of staffed hospital beds in the City of New Orleans was estimated to be about 80 percent less in February 2006 than before Hurricane Katrina, according to figures reported by hospitals.
• There is some movement to reopen a small level I facility, but it is unclear at this point when that will happen, or how long the facility will remain open.
• There appears to be an impasse between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the owner/operator of Charity and University hospitals. These two hospitals provided most of the poor and indigent population care in the greater New Orleans region. As long as this impasse continues, the future of the two major hospitals which provided key services to so many remains uncertain.
• At the time of GAO’s visit, many safety net clinics in the city were closed, and those that were open were reported to have limited capacity. Relatively little was known about the status of physicians and other healthcare workers.
  

Note: For a copy of the GAO report click here: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06576r.pdf and for a copy of the Dingell, Stupak, Brown November 4, 2005 letter to GAO click here: http://www.house.gov/energycommerce/Press_109/109ltr51.pdf

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