Letter to the editor re: “Strained by Katrina, A Hospital Faces Deadly Choices ” by Sheri Fink, M.D., Ph.D. in the New York Times August 30, 2009

To the Editor:

Fink parses the ethics of hospital staff rather than those who abandoned them during Katrina.  What if Tenet and LifeCare, the owners of the two health facilities at Memorial Hospital, decided to take immediate responsibility for evacuating their patients?

LifeCare wanted first FEMA and then Tenet to take care of it. Tenet got on the horn to friends in Washington.

Tenet’s CEO was compensated 9.7M in 2008. Tenet’s history is littered with scandals including unnecessary surgeries and repeated fraud.  LifeCare, which has found funds to make illegal campaign contributions, has 20 locations and assets of $484M. Surely, in absolute terms, either could have paid for timely helicopter evacuation.  This was a business decision.

Dr. Pou and others stepped up to the plate and most patients were saved.  Tenet came up with helicopters 3 days into the crisis, LifeCare never did.  Fink digs up already dismissed charges of “euthanasia” against Samaritan heroes who stayed put to work under unspeakable conditions while asserting, “LifeCare deployed the full array of modern technology to keep alive its often elderly and debilitated patients.”

Fink’s sensational article is an unfitting commemoration of Katrina and a missed opportunity for investigating a case scenario of how for-profit healthcare works.

Laura S. Boylan, MD

New York City

Link to original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30doctors.html