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Recovery czar nods to community clinics

Section: Health

Daniel Monteverde

Touring the Tulane University Community Health Center at Covenant House on Thursday afternoon, federal recovery coordinator Donald Powell gave a new governmental nod of approval to using community health clinics to deliver primary care in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Following on the heels of a visit earlier this year by Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and a subsequent grant of about $100 million from the department for clinics in the New Orleans area, Powell said he views such clinics as a "viable model" for health care post-Katrina.

Since the 2005 hurricanes, government officials have wrestled with how to rebuild public health care for the uninsured and working poor of the city. Before the storms, uninsured patients were directed almost exclusively to the Charity Hospital system.

While Louisiana State University System President John Lombardi has said he supports the rebuilding of a new teaching hospital in New Orleans to replace the old Charity Hospital, which faced flood damage in its bottom levels after Katrina, the shuttering of the landmark hospital has left few options for people without insurance.

But as the struggle to rebuild the hospital infrastructure continues, a network of charitable clinics -- also called medical homes -- has formed with the goal of linking patients with doctors who can help eliminate the need for trips to an emergency room.

"I think it's a model that deserves to be reviewed and looked at," Powell said. "Anytime you can get better health care with less cost (it's) powerful."

Karen DeSalvo, executive director of the Tulane Community Health Center on North Rampart Street, said extra funding authorized by the federal government and officials' continuing desire to support the clinics have been encouraging.

"It's an amazing statement from the federal government," DeSalvo said.

The clinics benefit not just people who lack insurance, she said. Among roughly 1,000 people visiting the Tulane clinic alone each month, half have some form of insurance.

"People have different needs," she said. "What we're building is good for everybody."

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