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Post-Katrina primary-care revolution in the Big Easy

August 28, 2015by Robert Whitcomb in Uncategorized tagged , , , , , ,

 

 

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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.

But since then,  Ms. Todd says, a  robust network of neighborhood-based primary-care and behavioral-health medical homes has arisen. “With the help of investments from foundations and the state and federal governments through grants and the Greater New Orleans Community Health Connection, a Medicaid demonstration waiver program, local organizations have greatly expanded their primary-care and behavioral health capacity, particularly in poor neighborhoods.”
“The majority of these health centers have same-day or next-day appointments, and all of them are dedicated to serving everyone who walks through the door. Also, our city recently celebrated the opening of University Medical Center, a $1.1 billion facility operated by local not-for-profit LCMC Health under a public-private partnership with the state,”  Ms. Todd wrote. 

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