Plans to build a new teaching hospital complex in downtown New Orleans to replace Charity Hospital may be in jeopardy.
According to The Times-Picayune, Federal Gulf Coast Recovery Coordinator Donald Powell told the University that some officials are questioning the need for the hospitals.
“They are questioning the need for the complex,” said Charles Zewe, LSU System vice president for Communications and External Affairs. “They have not said that directly, but that is the way we interpret that.”
The plans call for a billion dollar project by the University Health Sciences Center and the Veteran’s Administration to hold over 600 hospital beds.
The University runs the state’s public hospital systems, including 11 hospitals which admits more than 81,000 patients annually.
After Hurricane Katrina damaged Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans, University officials were faced with restructuring and organizing the hospital system in Louisiana.
Laura Danzy, first-year resident student, said she never imagined she would move to three cities in the year following Katrina.
Danzy, a Pineville native, said she moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to Lafayette since the storm hit.
Danzy graduated from the University with a biology degree in August 2004 and started medical school the same month in New Orleans.
“We start in July, and we were supposed to take a test the day Katrina hit,” Danzy said. “I evacuated Saturday morning with all my books so I could study because I just knew we were going to have our test Monday morning but that’s not what happened.”
Danzy said after Katrina hit, she evacuated to Baton Rouge and started school within three weeks.
“The school did a really good job of keeping us updated, and it was stressful and really frustrating,” Danzy said. “E-mail was down so three weeks later we started medical school back up in Baton Rouge at Pennington.”
The University’s portion of the project will cost $650 million, with $300 million coming from the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
“We have a request for $300 million before the Louisiana Recovery Authority, that is federal money and the LRA will decide whether to go ahead and allocate that $300 million which his part of the money to pay for the LSU portion of the tower,” Zewe said.
Zewe said the University is working on completing a business plan by Thanksgiving break which will give proposals on how the University will fund the remaining $350 million of the project.
“At the same time we are working up a business plan to show how LSU will pay for the remainder of the cost of the project,” Zewe said. “The governor said last week she is committed to building a new academic teaching hospital in New Orleans with or without the Veterans Administration.”
Zewe said the LRA previously committed to funding $300 million of the project.
“Since last February, we’ve been working with them,” Zewe said. “On June 23 we signed a memo of understanding with Gov. Blanco and President [William] Jenkins to explore and plan the joint construction of this medical complex in New Orleans.”
Charity is no longer, and we plan to have no further medical use for the old Charity building. We are in the process of re-opening University hospital which is right near the LSU Health Sciences Center, and we plan to have it opened Nov. 1 for acute care and trauma care at the end of the year.”
Zewe said they want the new complex to be similar to the one at the University of Texas Medical Center in Houston.
“Very similar to the University of Texas Medical Center in Houston, which includes M.D. Anderson,” Zewe said. “We hope to create that in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.”
Zewe said students normally train at public hospitals around the state.
“The residents do their training at our facility, right now those residents are being trained at private hospital and other public hospitals in New Orleans and the surrounding area, Baton Rouge, Lafayette,” Zewe said.
Danzy said she was in Baton Rouge through July of this year and is now working at University Medical Center, the charity hospital in Lafayette.
“Everyone’s been through a lot and it’s a really new experience, but I really think the school did a lot to help with the transition,” Danzy said. “They still accommodate people.”
Danzy said many of her classmates have moved to private hospitals.
“Everyone’s real anxious to get back to New Orleans and for the hospitals to be back up and running,” Danzy said. “A lot of the private hospitals aren’t used to having students around- it’s not better or worse, just different. It’s less hands on experience and more observation.”
Zewe said the system hopes to revamp the image of “state-run hospitals.”
“We are leaching that word from our vocabulary, they’re going to be called teaching and university hospitals,” Zewe said. “We are getting a way from the old model where we just treated poor people.”
A spokesman from Gov. Blanco’s office said the issue has not caused division between Louisiana and federal officials
“This is more of an issue with federal officials not President Bush,” said Roderick Hawkins, Blanco’s deputy press secretary. “More of an issue of working with the Secretary of Health and Human Services Levitt, but this does not directly affect the Governor’s relationship with President Bush. This is more of working with an arm of the federal government.”
—–Contact Elizabeth Miller at emiller@lsureveille.com