Value, 2006

CHRISTUS® Schumpert Health System

February 2006

CHRISTUS Schumpert Health System of Shreveport, Louisiana, drew on an AHRQ report, Use of Former ("Shuttered") Hospitals to Expand Surge Capacity, when it reopened 29 acute care hospital beds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the region August 29, 2005. These acute care beds are in CHRISTUS Schumpert's Bossier facility, which had previously operated primarily as a scaled-down provider of rehabilitation services. It is located near Shreveport.

According to Knox Andress, RN, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for CHRISTUS Schumpert, the AHRQ shuttered hospital report was "very relevant" and "very timely" in its availability to the Health System and others in the Gulf Coast region. He publicized the report to more than 100 key contacts in the Gulf Coast region in an E-mail message sent on September 8, 2005. Andress serves as Designated Regional Coordinator under an HRSA grant for hospital bioterrorism planning for state hospital region seven, which includes nine parishes and 28 hospitals in northwest Louisiana.

The AHRQ report gives emergency responders and public health officials useful, practical tools for opening shuttered hospitals when an emergency is underway or as a part of community preparedness planning efforts. It provides information including lists of supplies and medications needed by stable medical/surgical patients and checklists to assess facility readiness, staffing needs and levels, and patient transport readiness. The report also contains a tool kit with a list of supplies and equipment needed for operation of a reopened facility.

The CHRISTUS Schumpert Health System is a not-for-profit, Catholic system that includes four hospitals, 750 physicians, several primary care clinics, and a hospice. It is owned and operated by CHRISTUS Health of Dallas, Texas.

Impact Case Study Identifier: CP3 06-06
AHRQ-Sponsored Activity: Research
Topic(s): Emergency Preparedness
Scope: Louisiana

Use of Former ("Shuttered") Hospitals to Expand Surge Capacity. September 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/shuttered/

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