Lessons from New Orleans: Part 1

Two weeks ago, during a research and reporting tour of New Orleans, I visited the former Charity hospital facilities. One of the first things I noticed about the empty building was the air conditioning units bulging out of the upper floor windows. Did they use electric heaters and portable radiators in the winter too?

Although the building had been ailing t for many years, damage from the flood is what ultimately caused the building to be closed, according to Diana Pinkley a representative from Women of the Storm, and our tour guide. The top two floors had actually been closed for longer than she could remember.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina, what remains of the Charity Hospital has been relocated to a nearby interim location. Meanwhile, the former building still stands as government officials debate whether to reopen or relocate.

But when it was open, two years ago, the window units were used. Not just one or two, but dozens of them.

Anybody who’s ever used one knows they are indeed a poor solution: dripping, rattling, energy guzzlers with little to no thermostat control—the quick fix to cooling emergencies here in the south.

For me, looking at such flimsy equipment being used at a hospital, they are a symbol of just how bad our healthcare has become here in the U.S. The window units were like seeing a Band-Aid on the building. Ailing people were treated in ailing facilities funded by an ailing medical system.

For years Charity was the preferred medical home of those without insurance. If you don’t have health insurance or money in the bank, you go to emergency rooms knowing that you won’t be turned away. So, like every emergency room around the country Charity struggled with how to fund facilities and care for those who couldn’t pay.

There are at least 45.8 million people, or approximately 16% of the population without insurance, according to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau. With no other place to go, these people will continue to seek medical care at their local emergency rooms. As the number of uninsured people continues to increase, without a drastic change in our healthcare system, Band-Aids will not be enough; our hospital systems will continue to degrade.

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