Healthcare in a Disaster Recovery – Opportunity Lost

Charged by the LA Legislature (with no funding allotted), the Foundation for Historical LA (FHL) commissioned a study on the possibility of reusing Charity Hospital after Katrina.  FHL raised the needed $600,000 and hired the 7^th largest architectural firm in the world,  with specialties in healthcare design and preservation.   The study showed that Charity Hospital was structurally sound and could be easily and efficiently gutted with a new state of the art hospital built inside the iconic shell.  Reuse of Charity would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars, returned healthcare and jobs back to the city faster, and prevented a historic neighborhood that was in recovery mode from ultimate demolition.  

There has been much controversy surrounding the closure of Charity – particularly since only the basement had flooded.  Political agendas were set in motion using disaster opportunities that doomed the sound alternatives that could have opened a new 21^st century hospital in 3 years.    Instead, a new plan to build a $1.2 billion complex was executed to replace the state public hospital – along with a $1.6  billion (and rising) VAMC . 

In order to build the new complexes, the Medical Historic District – which included Charity, the VA, and surrounding buildings – was abandoned.  67 acres of homes and businesses, many restored after Katrina using federal funds, were demolished.  Both medical complexes are still in construction 9 years after Katrina.  And to top it off, the state decided to privatize the public healthcare system; so ultimately, the new state complex is using public money to now build a private facility.