New Orlean's Tulane Hospital Reopens

NEW ORLEANS' TULANE HOSPITAL REOPENS -- (House of Representatives - February 16, 2006)

(Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, my committee, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, held a field hearing down in the City of New Orleans during the January break. For me, it was my second trip to that storm-ravaged area; and, once again, you just cannot help but be overwhelmed by the size and the scope of the destruction that has happened down on our gulf coast area.

But Mr. Speaker, although we were there primarily to study the health care issues going on, and there were some significant problems down there, we saw the facility at LSU, Charity Hospital, one of the venerable old institutions in this country's history for training of medical doctors, completely in tatters. But there was not all bad news. There was some good news. Right across the street at Tulane University Medical Center, HCA, the Hospital Corporation of America, had that facility almost up and ready to go.

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report that yesterday they held the ribbon-cutting for New Orleans Tulane Hospital as it reopened. In fact, Mr. Speaker, according to a news report, more than 100 nurses and doctors, in lab coats and scrubs, performed the wave in celebration, prompting Mayor Ray Nagin to ask them what was in their coffee. ``I don't know what you're taking at Tulane, but I want some of that,'' he said.

Well, Mr. Mayor, it is old-fashioned American ingenuity and entrepreneurship. It works every time it is tried. I hope we will see more of that down in New Orleans.

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