Hospitals in New Orleans needs patients to stay in business

“Just five hospitals in New Orleans and surrounding areas are fully operational and staffed, the U.S. Public Health Service said, with around 500 beds to take patients. But with the city all but emptied by a mandatory evacuation order, those beds are mostly empty.

‘One of the concerns is if we don’t bring back patients to support their activities, they may not be able to continue those activities,’ Adm. Craig Vanderwagen, the assistant surgeon general, said at a weekend briefing.

But the chief executives of two of the five hospitals told Reuters on Monday that what they most need is financial assistance after an extended period with no revenue — and if they do not get it within two to four weeks they will not be able to keep the doctors they need.

‘The physicians we have with private practices have no revenue coming in,’ said Mark Peters, CEO of East Jefferson General Hospital, himself a physician. ‘I need both the money to sustain the hospital and money to support medical staff.'”