Jindal, Davis Slowing Alleviation of Hospital’s Critical Needs

Regarding Governor Jindal’s hiring freeze, the Charity Hospital System faces

… patients waiting 120 days on average for primary care appointments…a patient load that has increased 24 percent in the past six months, [and] an expansion plan that could come to a grinding halt if the hiring process is stymied. [The Times-Picayune]

It’s Angele Davis’s job to oversee the vetting of new hires across the state, including 1,200 new positions that Blanco’s administration OK’d. But how appropriate a judge is the former secretary of the Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism when the task at hand is the hiring policy at hospitals? Can Davis’ appointed team effectively and quickly scrutinize 324 open healthcare vacancies in a hospital system that saw an increase of 2,300 outpatient and emergency visits in the last six months?

When patients face a 120-day wait for primary care, the negative impact touches everyone involved, including the hospital, by driving up the cost of emergency care for patients who should have seen a doctor sooner. How much longer can the patients and the hospital afford to wait?