Louisiana Health Officials Say Hospital, Nursing Home Evacuations Better During Hurricane Gustav Than Katrina

Communication systems during the evacuations of nursing homes and hospitals for Hurricane Gustav improved significantly from when Hurricane Katrina hit three years ago, but there still is room for improvement, Louisiana health officials said, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. Between 500 and 600 hospital and home-based patients were evacuated and sent out of state to other facilities for Gustav, according to state officials. An additional 8,200 patients were evacuated from nursing homes, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said.

There were significant communication and transportation problems with Katrina evacuations both on federal and state levels, according to the Advocate. For Gustav, health officials noted several areas of improvement such as ensuring that planes and ambulances arrived in a timely manner and were appropriately staffed, and that there were means to maintain communication when computers, telephones and other devices were no longer operable. Local health officials said they will work to improve communication problems. In addition, Teri Fontenot, CEO of Women's Hospital, said there may need to be some "relaxed criteria" for length-of-stay guidelines established for private and government-sponsored insurance payments because of home conditions and a lack of access to pharmacies (Shuler, Baton Rouge Advocate, 9/30).