Charity Hospital

Bourbon Street.

Here’s a look at how post-Katrina New Orleans has transformed primary and behavioral health there as seen by Susan Todd, executive director of 504HealthNet, a nonprofit alliance of nearly two dozen healthcare organizations in the greater New Orleans area.

There are numerous lessons in New Orleans’s experience for other localities seeking to improve care of underserved populations, for example through Federally Qualified Health Centers, with which Cambridge Management Group has worked.

Before the storm, low-income and uninsured residents largely received care through the very troubled state-run public hospital system, particularly the flagship Charity Hospital, downtown. The system had overcrowded clinics, long wait times, frequent budget shortfalls, and a location inconvenient to many patients.