Found at Comcast.net
19 Health Care Facilities Probed in La.
By Associated Press
Washington Post
Posted 10/03/05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100301471.html
NEW ORLEANS - A total of six hospitals and 13 nursing homes in Louisiana are under investigation in the deaths of dozens of elderly patients following Hurricane Katrina, state Attorney General Charles Foti said Monday.
At issue is whether the facilities mishandled evacuations of patients, abandoned them during the devastating storm or euthanized patients to spare them pain when rescuers didn't arrive for days.
Foti told a legislative committee hearing that the investigation includes Charity Hospital, New Orleans' major public hospital.
At least 140 elderly patients in nursing homes and hospitals died in the storm and its aftermath; dozens more who were living independently may have perished...
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LA Times, Sept 23rd, 2005:
U.S. Joins Probe of Nursing Home Deaths
The Department of Health and Human Services says it will conduct a broad review.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have joined a Louisiana inquiry into nursing home deaths during Hurricane Katrina, as the government begins considering stronger requirements to protect patients in healthcare facilities during natural disasters.
Industry officials say the deaths were tragic exceptions in chaotic circumstances under which most facilities carried out their duties, some of them heroically.
The inspector general's office in the Department of Health and Human Services said it was assisting the investigation of 34 deaths at St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish. State authorities have charged the owners of the home with 34 counts of negligent homicide for allegedly ignoring requests to evacuate.
"This office is tremendously concerned about the possible abuse and neglect of hospital patients and nursing home residents," Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson wrote to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) in a letter released Thursday. Grassley has also asked for a Justice Department investigation.
Separately, officials of Health and Human Services — which, through Medicare and Medicaid, is the nation's largest payer for hospital and nursing home care — said they would consider a broad range of actions to prevent such deaths in the future.
"I think only Rip Van Winkle would be able to ignore the wake-up call that Hurricane Katrina offers with regard to emergency preparedness," Thomas Hamilton, director of the department's office that sets standards for healthcare facilities, said in an interview.
"It is worth looking at the current requirements and asking ourselves,
in light of the experience with Hurricane Katrina, with an entire healthcare system going down:
Are there better protections that could be put in place for that kind of phenomenon?"...
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