Some of the most disturbing incidents during Hurricane Katrina involved nursing homes. There was a criminal case brought against the operators of one nursing home where residents died (St. Rit'as in St. Bernard Parish where 25 residents drowned), however, the owners were found not guilty of negligent homicide and cruety to the infirm. Some have estgimated that nurisng home residents accounted for almost 10 percent of the deaths blamed on Katrina in Louisiana.
Since Katrina, nursing-home beds in New Orleans decresed 42 percent and the number of nursing homes and elderly-care centers declined 42 percent. None of the four nursing homes in St. Bernard Parish have reopened and 10 in New Orleans remain closed. The costs of reopening nursing homes are very high with one non-profit institution spending $14 million to buy and renovate a former hospital in order to reopen. (From AP "Nursing homes returning to Katrina-ravaged areas--but slowly, Sept. 16, 2007).
Nursing home residents are some of the most vulnerable in the event of a disaster. How should nursing homes prepare for natural disasters? Do you think it is up to the individual nursing home to evacuate residents or is it something the local government should handle?
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2 comments:
It is awfully difficult given the logistics involved of moving an entire nursing home...is such a tragedy a common occurance? An exception or a rule? It might be inefficient to retransplant an entire nursing community everytime the sky turns dark...
Moving nursing home residents is extremely difficult, but when the forecast is for a catastrophic event, it seems reasonable to expect that the nursing home operators will attempt an evacuation. Non-nursing home residents had the opportunity to evacuate, but the nursing home residents (in some cases) did not.
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