Ochsner Baptist Medical Center
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Ochsner Baptist Medical Center is a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. The complex of Hospital buildings is located on Napoleon Avenue in Uptown New Orleans.
Formerly known as Southern Baptist Hospital, it was founded in 1926. It was acquired by Tenet Healthcare and renamed Memorial Medical Center in 1996. The name was changed again to Ochsner Baptist Medical Center, following Ochsner Health System's purchase of Memorial and several other New Orleans area hospitals in 2006.
The hospital became the official healthcare provider of the New Orleans Saints football team in 1967.
The hospital and the area around it flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, rendering the hospital an island with the bottom floor flooded, with no electricity or other utilities.
National attention was drawn to the hospital when CNN reported on October 12, 2005 that the Louisiana attorney general was investigating the possibility that mercy killings of critically ill patients by staff medical professionals at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans occurred while staff and patients were stranded in the hospital after Hurricane Katrina. On September 13, 2005 Tenet Healthcare Corporation stated: "No patients drowned nor did any die as a result of lack of food or drinking water." However, others have claimed that bodies were removed in large numbers from the building and that a female physician may have given lethal injections of morphine to patients.
The hospital was closed after the surviving patients and staff were able to be evacuated. As of December, 2005, the hospital remains closed, and management has been discussing demolishing the main hospital buildings rather than refurbishing them.
On 29 June, 2006, Tenet announced that Memorial and three other hospitals in Greater New Orleans were among eleven they planned to sell by mid 2007. [1]
On 18 July, 2006, the Louisiana Attorney General's office announced that Doctor Anna Pou and two nurses were arrested in connection with deaths in the Post-Katrina crisis, and may be charged with second degree murder. [2]
On 19 July, 2006, Ochsner Health System announced they are acquiring Memorial Medical Center along with two other Tenet Hospitals in the Greater New Orleans area, Meadowcrest Hospital in Gretna, Louisiana and Kenner Regional Medical Center in Kenner, Louisiana. The sale is expected to be finalized by the end of August. [3]
[edit] External links
- Memorial Medical Center on TenetHealth site
- Healthcare Corporation Statement, September 13, 2005
- extensive Times-Picayune coverage of Memorial during Katrina and aftermath
- CNN article, October 12
- Statement by a doctor confirming rumors of euthanasia
- CNN reports Euthanasia Credible, December 21, 2005
[edit] References
- Curiel, Tyler J. (November 16, 2006). "Murder or Mercy? Hurricane Katrina and the Need for Disaster Training". New England Journal of Medicine 355 (20): 2067-2069.
