Dr. Kevin Contreary
The following quote from Dr. Kevin Contreary captured the false sense of security that pervaded a city situated below sea level on the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain just 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico:
"I think it’s fair to say no one was really prepared for Katrina. That was a shot out of the darkness that nobody, I think, in their wildest imaginations really thought would happen, you know. We all talked about the Armageddon scenario, the right hurricane coming right up the mouth of the river. . . But, I do not think anybody really thought that it would happen, you know."
Dr. Contreary provided the following information regarding funds that had been appropriated for indigent care:
"And the state, in its wisdom, has chosen not to free up Medicaid monies that were designated for indigent care to go to Charity Hospital for indigent care. Those monies are being held by Cerise and Department of Health and Hospitals. You know, just in a bank somewhere. And those monies were designated by the state and federal government for Charity Hospital. Charity is not there. That money is for the care of the indigents. So those indigents are now coming to East Jefferson and West Jeff and other hospitals. And that money should be given to those hospitals, in proportion, to help pay for that care and it’s not, so there’s some lawsuits pending right now. I think West Jeff filed a suit against Department of Health and Resources to try to get to this money."
Dr. Contreary addressed the impact of the lack of accessible, affordable mental health services at a time of unprecedented stress, especially for the indigent:
"Obviously at a time when there’s a lot more stressors in the environment, a lot more people that maybe are a little marginally together [people] could really use a little psychiatric help. We had a psychiatric problem before [the storm]. Psychiatry has always been a field that is fairly, poorly reimbursed by insurance companies and Medicare and so psychiatrists do not make a lot of money and a lot of insurance companies won’t pay for it, so people have to come out of pocket. So it’s always been a field that’s been maybe a bit under staffed and certainly post-Katrina, that’s the case. A lot of mental health professionals left, so there’s a hole right now. Certainly, the indigent population is taking it the hardest because a lot of the charity based mental health systems are out, too."
Although the physical plant at East Jefferson Hospital became inoperable due to street flooding, the hospital had a secondary water supply as described by Dr. Contreary:
"This place had no water actually in the physical plant. East Jefferson had water all around it; in the streets. I was trapped here for about four days post Katrina in the hospital before we could even get out. So, we were surrounded by water and trapped. But the hospital has a secondary water supply underneath the hospital. There’s a well system, so the hospital was able to tap into its well system and actually have water to drink, bathe with, although the pressure was terrible."