Jamey Boudreaux, Executive Director of the Louisiana and Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Six months have passed since Katrina made landfall at the Louisiana/Mississippi Gulf Coast, and four months since Rita struck the western coast of Louisiana, setting in motion the evacuation of over 2 million residents of both states and scattering at least 1785 hospice patients from the region into unknown parts of the country. 41 LMHPCO Hospice Providers were in the direct path of either Katrina and/or Rita. Another 61 LMHPCO Provider Members were indirectly affected by the twin storms, providing shelter and services to hundreds of displaced and frightened evacuees and their families. LMHPCO conducted a survey (the last week of January, 2006) of our directly affected members to capture a snapshot in time of our progress. This assessment provides us with a glimpse into the devastation suffered throughout south Louisiana and Mississippi upon the hospice community.
Patient census is currently down 21% throughout the region and hospice agencies in this part of the country are operating with 23% less staff. 21% of our hospice team members are still living in temporary housing and hundreds of others are working on repairs to their damaged, but livable homes and families. LMHPCO will continue to assess the progress of our membership over the coming 12 months and will provide updates on our efforts to Rebuild and Recover hospice and end-of-life care services throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.
The chart below provides data provided by our 41 Provider Members in the directly affected areas of the two-state region, providing their pre-hurricane and post-hurricane Average Daily Census (noting % increase/decrease); pre-hurricane and post-hurricane number of Full Time Employees (noting % increase/decrease); as well as the number of hospice staff still living in temporary shelter. The 5 regions identified are: New Orleans; the Mississippi Gulf Coast, stretching North to Hattiesburg, MS; Southwest Louisiana; the Northshore of Lake Pontchatrain; and Southeast Louisiana.
| Region | preADC | postADC | % | preFTE | postFTE | % | Hospice Staff living in temporary housing |
| NOLA | 550 | 290 | 47 | 336 | 165 | 50.89 | 81 |
| MS Gulf Coast | 548 | 477 | 13 | 229 | 226 | 1 | 30 |
| SW LA | 401 | 337 | 16 | 136 | 135 | 0.74 | 6 |
| Northshore | 172 | 173 | 0.6 | 66.5 | 62.5 | 6 | 11 |
| SE LA | 114 | 131 | 15 | 57 | 47 | 17.5 | 3 |
| 1785 | 1408 | 21 | 824.5 | 635.5 | 23 | 131 |
Greatest Challenges identified by hospice providers post Katrina/Rita:
- Dealing with complicated grief (PTSD) issues of patient and staff
-Increased psychosocial and financial issues of both patients and staff
-Increased use of social work and chaplain services
-Increased bereavement needs and services
-Increased non-funded referrals - Loss of referral sources; many physicians have closed their practices; providers attempting to rebuilding hospice census
- Short staffed; recruiting and retaining a hospice workforce, especially with regard to CNAs and RNs
- Lack of housing for hospice staff
- Lack of inpatient hospice beds
- Increased traffic; slowing response time to patient calls and staff having to travel longer distances between patients
- Finding a new sense of normalcy
- Major population shifts and changing goals of patients/families
- Increased concerns about the 2006 hurricane season (only 4 months away)
- Finding space for special needs patients in the event of future evacuations
- Communication difficulties (slow moving US Postal Service and spotty telephone service, interruption of internet services)
- Planning for communication needs in the wake of the next evacuation
- Inpatient referrals not meeting criteria
- Community education
