[StBernard] Chalmette hospital reduced to rubble

[Westley Annis]

Chalmette hospital reduced to rubble
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
By Karen Turni Bazile
Heavy equipment has torn down most of Chalmette Medical Center, finishing
the demolition job that Hurricane Katrina started 18 months ago. 

As of mid-day Monday, the only structure still standing was the covered
entrance driveway with the name Chalmette Medical Center emblazoned on it.
The remainder of the 196-bed, two-story, acute-care hospital lie in large
piles of debris that methodically were being removed. 

The adjacent 47,000-square-foot medical office building and a nearby
physical rehabilitation skilled-nursing facility on Virtue Street in
Chalmette all have been razed, and debris clearing is ongoing, said Marc
Miller, vice president of Universal Health Services, Inc., a national
publicly traded company based in Pennsylvania that owned all the facilities.


 
Miller said the hospital -- which, ironically, had opened a $17 million wing
that was the largest expansion in its 25-year history only weeks prior to
the storm -- sustained heavy flood damage to its entire first floor and had
to be demolished. The flood covered the area in 12 feet of murky water. 

Because the hospital and medical complex weren't completely gutted by the
parish's Aug. 29, 2006, deadline, it was included in a list of 5,600
properties the Parish Council condemned last fall. The company is handling
the demolition, which included the removal of confidential medical records
and medical waste. 

Universal announced it settled its insurance claims in August receiving $264
million for damage done to its facilities in the New Orleans market that
were damaged: Chalmette Medical Center in Chalmette; Methodist Hospital and
Lakeland Medical Pavilion, two acute-care hospitals that flooded in eastern
New Orleans; and River Oaks Hospital, a behavioral health facility that
received some damage but was opened weeks after Katrina. 

While there are no plans to open a hospital in Chalmette, Miller said the
company has "done extensive remediation at the Methodist Hospital," which
was six stories tall. 

Since the storm, St. Bernard Parish officials have criticized the hospital's
management over the way it handled its patient evacuation, denounced it for
refusing to return until the parish's population rebounded and finally,
blasted it for taking so long to clean its facility. 

At a meeting shortly after Katrina, in November 2005, parish officials said
they didn't want Chalmette Medical to return. Hospital officials at the
meeting defended their actions and said they saved many lives and evacuated
after the storm when it was possible. 

Since Katrina destroyed the hospital, health care in St. Bernard has been
provided through a variety of sources, including assistance from the federal
government and a group of local doctors that successfully lobbied two
nonprofit health systems to take over the temporary clinic next to the
government complex in Chalmette. 

The group operating the clinic has said it is trying to build a small
hospital on higher land nearer to the Mississippi River. 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at (504) 826-3321