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Thousands of providers displaced by Hurricane Katrina

Medical Staff Leader Connection, October 12, 2005

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Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed left New Orleans in soggy ruins has displaced nearly 6,000 physicians and negatively affected as many as 20,000 physicians. These figures include the nearly 1,300 resident physicians were training in the immediate New Orleans area at the time of the storm This is the largest displacement of physicians in United States history.

A recent study by the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill found 5,944 active, patient-carte physicians had been displaced by the storm and flooding. These physicians came from across the ten counties and parishes in Louisiana and Mississippi directly affected by Katrina.

More than two-thirds of these displaced physicians came from three central New Orleans parishes evacuated during the flood. The number of displaced physicians is more than a quarter of the total number of new physicians who start practicing in the United States each year

The majority of the displaced physicians were specialists - 2,952 in total. Another 1,292 worked in primary care and 272 doctors were obstetricians and gynecologists, according to the UNC research team.

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