[NRSKarenRN]

Found at Comcast.net news:

La. Hospitals Nearing Financial Collapse
By DAVID PACE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Louisiana's public hospital system is on the verge of financial collapse two months after Hurricane Katrina and needs federal aid quickly, the head of the system said Thursday.

"We're out of money, roughly after Thanksgiving," Donald Smithburg, chief executive of the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division, told reporters. "We are running out of time."
Smithburg said the system, Louisiana's largest health care provider with 1.2 million patients annually before the storm, will have to furlough 2,900 of its 8,000 employees next week, the first step toward permanent layoffs on Dec. 17.

Two of the system's nine hospitals, Charity and University in New Orleans, have been closed since they were severely damaged in the storm. They are the system's two biggest hospitals and include one of only two trauma care units in the state. The other seven are scattered elsewhere in the state and remain open....

[katwoman7755]

It's amazing to deal with on a daily basis...talked with a social worker from charity yesterday...they are stilling working in tents in the parking lot of university hospital...like a MASH unit...they are reportedly getting ready to open some building which will function as a walk in clinic....people are slowly trickling back into the city...and not having big charity fully functional will prove be disastrous for the community. The sadness continues....

Kathryn
Southeast La RN