C3 NOLA Concern, Community, and Compassion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

September 22, 2006

CONTACT:

Natalie Wyeth
Louisiana Recovery Authority
(225) 382-5502
natalie.wyeth@la.gov

LRA Infrastructure Task Force and Healthcare Committee Hold Joint Meeting
Tuesday

BATON ROUGE, La. (September 22, 2006) - The Louisiana Recovery Authority's
(LRA) Infrastructure and Transportation Task Force and Health Care Committee
will hold a joint meeting on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 from 8:30 a.m. to
12:00 p.m. in House Committee Room No. 5 in the State Capitol in Baton
Rouge, LA.

The groups will consider the future of healthcare infrastructure in New
Orleans, including the rebuilding of the Medical Center of Louisiana - New
Orleans and how it is integrated into the healthcare infrastructure system
in the region.

The agenda includes updates from:

Dr. Fred Cerise, La. Department of Health and Hospitals
Dr. William Jenkins, LSU Health Sciences Center
Dr. Allen Miller, Tulane Health Sciences Center
To view the full agenda, click here.

Its easy to offer a different perspective when you have no perspective. When was the last time Vitter used Charity? When was the last time any of his friends used Charity?

Rebuild Charity smaller, smarter
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
David Vitter

One of the most important discussions in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is how to rebuild our devastated health care system. Many have argued that we must rebuild Charity Hospital pretty much as it was, and quickly.

I want to offer a very different perspective: that we should rebuild Charity in downtown New Orleans quickly but smaller, and do it in the context of more fundamental health care reform that offers the poor what the rest of us enjoy: community-based primary, preventative care and choice.

First of all, it's important to say that no serious voice on the issue contends that Charity should not be reopened -- that we can do without its downtown emergency room, Level I trauma center and teaching hub. All of that must be rebuilt and reopened, and the sooner the better. The real question is how big that should be, and what should the rest of the system look like.