Charity Hospital (New Orleans)

29.955383°N 90.077957°W / 29.955383; -90.077957

Charity Hospital was one of two teaching hospitals which were part of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO). Three weeks after the events of Hurricane Katrina, then Governor Kathleen Blanco said that Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to medical-ready standards. The Louisiana State University System, which owns the building, has stated that it has no plans to reopen the hospital in its original location, choosing instead to incorporate it into the city's new medical center currently being constructed in the lower Midcity neighborhood.

Charity Hospital building on Tulane Avenue

Organization

Charity Hospital was one of several public hospitals around the state of Louisiana administered by the Louisiana State University System at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Charity Hospital and the nearby University Hospital were both teaching hospitals affiliated with the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO). University Hospital and the adjacent Tulane Medical Center remain open.

Prior to Katrina, the Charity Hospital building was located in the New Orleans Hospital District. It is on the opposite side of I-10 from the LSU Health Sciences Center. The address is 1532 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112-1352.

History

Charity Hospital was founded on May 10, 1736, by a grant from the French sailor and shipbuilder Jean Louis, who died in New Orleans the year before. His last will and testament was to finance a hospital for the indigent in the colony of New Orleans from his estate. His hospital has served the poor in New Orleans for over 250 years. Charity Hospital was originally named the Hospital of Saint John or L’Hôpital des Pauvres de la Charité (Hospital for the Poor). The first Charity Hospital was located on the intersection of Chartres Street and Bienville Street in what is now the French Quarter. The hospital was founded 18 years after the city was founded by France in 1718. It is the second oldest continually operated public hospital in the United States. Only Bellevue Hospital in New York City is older, having been founded a month earlier, on March 31, 1736.

Charity Hospital quickly outgrew its original facility, and a second hospital was built at the edge of the colony on Basin Street in 1743. A third hospital was built nearby in 1785. It was renamed the San Carlos Hospital in honor of King Charles III, King of Spain, after New Orleans was ceded to Spain in 1763.

The old Charity Hospital building at the start of the 20th century

A fire destroyed this hospital in 1809. Without a building, a temporary hospital was established at the Cabildo for a month, then at the Jourdan residence in the Faubourg Marigny for 6 months, then the dilapidated De La Vergne plantation for 5 years while a fourth hospital was built. This new hospital was built at the edge of the city on Canal Street where the Fairmont Hotel is currently located. The hospital was completed in 1815, but this hospital was widely criticized as inadequate and underfunded.

A fifth hospital was built within Girod, Gravier, St. Mary, and Common Streets in the Faubourg St. Marie in 1832. This hospital came under the administration of the Sisters of Charity, who would run the hospital for the next century. Under their care, Charity Hospital, partnered with the Medical College of the University of Louisiana would become a celebrated institution of healing in the city.

By the 20th century, the city of New Orleans was rapidly expanding, and the demand for indigent medical services again exceeded the capacity of the existing Charity Hospital. A sixth hospital was built on Tulane Avenue in 1939. At the time it was the second largest hospital in the United States with 2,680 beds.

Main entry of Charity Hospital

The building's cornerstone lists the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (later called the Public Works Administration) as the building authority. The architects were Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth, who were also responsible for the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. The hospital features two stone bas-reliefs and a cast aluminum screen called Louisiana at Work and Play, all by artist Enrique Alferez.

The new LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO) was built adjacent to Charity Hospital in 1931 under the aegis of Louisiana Governor Huey Pierce Long. Serving one of the largest populations of uninsured citizens, Charity Hospital also boasted the #2 Level I Trauma Center in the nation, with the #1 rank belonging to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources (DHH) took control of Charity Hospital in 1970. The hospital was transferred to the Louisiana Health Care Authority (LHCA) in 1991 and to the LSU System in 1997.

Hurricane Katrina

Like its sister hospital, University Hospital, Charity Hospital sustained severe flood damage during Hurricane Katrina. The evacuation of patients from the flooded hospital made national headlines. After the storm, a temporary clinic named the Spirit of Charity was established at the Convention Center. The temporary Spirit of Charity Clinic was later relocated to the New Orleans Centre building adjacent to the Superdome, but by February 2007, a renovated University Hospital had taken over the responsibilities of emergency care to the city which Charity originally provided. The future of Charity Hospital itself remains in question. LSUHSC has announced that it is planning to build a new modern facility nearby named the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO). The new hospital will consolidate the functions of both Charity Hospital and University Hospital. There is speculation that the Art Deco hospital building will become an historical site.

Campaign to Rebuild Charity Hospital

The Foundation for Historical Louisiana, as charged in HCR 89 of the 2006 Louisiana Legislature, hired the internationally renowned architectural firm, RMJM Hillier, to “…examine and evaluate the entire Big Charity structure to determine the advisability of repairing or restructuring the entire facility.” RMJM Hillier determined the building to be structurally sound—with its original design being architecturally exceptional and “ahead of its time.” Rehabilitation into a 21st century, state-of-the-art facility would be the fastest, most cost effective way to return quality healthcare and a teaching hospital to N.O. This vision was scrubbed in favor of building a new teaching hospital and V.A. Medical Center in the adjacent neighborhood of lower Mid City. Many of the homes in the neighborhood were moved or demolished to make way for the project and construction of these new facilities is currently underway.

In May, 2008 The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the hospital building on its list of America's Most Endangered Places.

Television

Charity Hospital was featured in the TLC documentary series, Code Blue. The series documented the lives of the hospital physicians and their patients. The episodes often illustrated the rate of violence in New Orleans by chronicling the high volume of patients who were treated in the emergency department with gunshot or stab wounds.

Charity Hospital was also featured in two episodes of TLC's Trauma: Life in the ER, which focused on Charity's emergency room, the busiest emergency room in the United States at the time.

See also

• Common Ground Health Clinic
• List of tallest buildings in New Orleans
• LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans
• University Hospital
• Louisiana State University System
• Scott Cowen
• Tulane University School of Medicine
• Salvaggio, John E. New Orleans' Charity Hospital.Louisiana State University Press,1992 ISBN 978-0-8071-1613-5

References

• Campaign to Save Charity Hospital.
• Charity Hospital Official Website.
• History of Charity Hospital.
• History of LSU Hospitals.