Privately-contracted helicopters move patients and staff at hospitals crippled by Hurricane Katrina
HCA (NYSE: HCA) Twenty helicopters hired by Hospital Corporation of
America (HCA) have completed the evacuation of patients and staff from
Tulane University Hospital and Clinic, which began four days ago
following Hurricane Katrina. The evacuation included close to 200
patients and over 1,200 employees and staff. HCA leadership,
coordinating with Gov. Blanco's office, has offered the 20 helicopters
at its expense to assist with the evacuation of nearby Charity
Hospital's two facilities, as well as University Medical Center, which
are not affiliated with HCA. As many as 50 Charity Hospital patients,
some severely ill and on ventilators, have already been evacuated by HCA.
The evacuation process has consisted of a constant airlift using
privately-contracted Blackhawk helicopters, Medi-vacs, passenger
helicopters, and, with cooperation from government authorities, Chinook
military aircraft. With each arrival, the helicopters dropped 750 pounds
of food, water and medical supplies, filling the choppers with people
for their return runs to the New Orleans airport, where buses wait ready
to transport healthy individuals to shelter locations in Lafayette. Now
the buses are taking people to HCA's Lakeview Hospital in Covington.
Some patients have been transferred to hospitals in the area, and, in an
effort to alleviate the local burden, others were transported to HCA
facilities in Texas and Florida.
HCA has dozens of staff on the ground in New Orleans coordinating
evacuation and relief efforts. Many have been in place since Katrina
hit. Others, flown in on private aircraft from other HCA hospital
locations, have arrived to support nursing and supply efforts in the
area. Another 170 nurses are on stand-by through "All About Staffing",
HCA's internally-run temporary nurse staffing organization. As the
Tulane operation begins to wind down, the 20 helicopters the company had
hired to assist in evacuating patients and staff are being maintained at
HCA's expense to assist with the evacuations from Charity's two
hospitals. Blackhawk helicopters will be used by HCA to provide food,
water, and medical supplies for Charity Hospital's patients and staff.
Some 150 employees from Chalmette were taken to an HCA-managed makeshift
shelter in Lafayette.
"This situation demands we all do everything we can to help one another.
We have use of these services, so it only makes sense that we keep these
helicopters under contract in the air and provide help to other
hospitals as best we can," said Jack O. Bovender, Jr., Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of HCA.
Earlier this week, HCA announced $2 million in cash donations, half of
which would go to the American Red Cross for relief efforts, the other
half to HCA's Hope Fund, to assist HCA personnel who have lost homes and
belongings in the disaster. The company has pledged to maintain all
3,800 employees in the area on full salary indefinitely, and to arrange
for them to find employment with other HCA facilities. Three other HCA
hospitals in the region have been affected by the storm: all patients
and staff from Lakeside Hospital in Metairie, Louisiana were evacuated
earlier in the week; operations remain intact at both Garden Park
Medical Center, in Gulfport, Mississippi and Lakeview Regional Medical
Center, where evacuated patients and employees from Tulane are now being
sent.
HCA is the nation's leading provider of healthcare services, composed of
locally managed facilities that include approximately 190 hospitals and
90 outpatient surgery centers in 23 states, England and Switzerland. At
its founding in 1968, Nashville-based HCA was one of the nation's first
hospital companies.
All references to "Company" and "HCA" as used throughout this document
refer to HCA Inc. and its affiliates
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding HCA's business
which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that
involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and
uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those
contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the
Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal
year.
Ed Fishbough, +1-615-344-2810, or
Jeff Prescott, +1-615-344-5708,
both of HCA