Press Release

Vesper Society Helps New Orleans-Area Hospital Cope with Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

San Francisco, CA, March 10, 2006— While the individual tales of heroism and courage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were undeniably moving, today's stories of rebuilding and coping with the storm's aftermath are truly inspirational.

During the hurricane, 11 of the New Orleans region's 14 hospitals were flooded, evacuated and closed. One of the remaining three that were fully functional was East Jefferson General Hospital (EJGH) in Metairie, Louisiana, just seven miles from downtown New Orleans.

When disaster struck, the 450-bed acute care facility found itself serving a much larger geographic area than ever before. As a result of the valuable foresight of EJGH’s management and staff, the facility never lost power, never took on water, and never ran out of drinking water. EJGH even opened up a temporary pharmacy and provided over 4,000 prescriptions to any local who had identification and an empty prescription bottle.

Nearly six months after Katrina, most of the New Orleans-area medical facilities that were forced to close have still not been able to reopen. 

As a result, EJGH has been stretched to the breaking point, running at or near capacity since the hurricane. The number of uninsured patients visiting the EJGH emergency room has nearly quadrupled since Katrina. Meanwhile, the staff has been overwhelmed with both work and personal crises, prompting Vesper Society to provide the hospital $10,000 to help its employees cope with the disaster. Nearly a third of EJGH’s 2,400 employees have lost their homes.

One is Dr. Joseph Tamimie, the medical director of EJGH’s Occupational Medicine Clinics. The first floor of his home was flooded by the collapse of the 17th Street levee, forcing him to send his family out of state. He would often clean the flooded first story of his home at night, working by flashlight. He slept on the second floor, going without drinkable and hot water at home for more than a month. Meanwhile, having shifted his practice in the weeks after the disaster to vaccinating rescue and salvage workers, Dr. Tamimie lost virtually an entire quarter of revenue.

Another is Beverly LaBeaud, an IT representative in EJGH’s human resources department. She was rescued from the roof of her mother’s home after the hurricane and spent two days as a refugee in the Superdome. She is now living with her family in a trailer provided by FEMA. While having to cut her hours at work (in order to get her twin sons to and from school), Beverly is making three housing payments: for rental space in a trailer park, for her family’s uninhabitable home, and for her mother’s home. “Remarkably,” she says, “I’m still doing my work and keeping up. . . . It has got to get better.”

Many more employees have left the area; prompting EJGH to fill more than 300 vacated positions. Yet despite the hardship, most of the hospital’s staff have remained dedicated to their work. Citing the aid EJGH has provided its workforce to get through the disaster, New Orleans City Business named the hospital one of the top ten places to work in the City in December.

A more detailed sense of EJGH employees’ experiences may be had through a series of short videos on the hospital’s website at www.EastJeffHospital.com/Katrina/KatrinaLegacy/.