Title
The Closure of New Orleans' Charity Hospital After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Disaster Capitalism
Date of Award
Spring 5-18-2012
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
Sociology
Department
Sociology
Major Professor
Vern Baxter
Second Advisor
Shirley Laska
Third Advisor
Rachel Luft
Abstract
Abstract
Amidst the worst disaster to impact a major U.S. city in one hundred years, New Orleans’ main trauma and safety net medical center, the Reverend Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, was permanently closed. Charity’s administrative operator, Louisiana State University (LSU), ordered an end to its attempted reopening by its workers and U.S. military personnel in the weeks following the August 29, 2005 storm. Drawing upon rigorous review of literature and an exhaustive analysis of primary and secondary data, this case study found that Charity Hospital was closed as a result of disaster capitalism. LSU, backed by Louisiana state officials, took advantage of the mass internal displacement of New Orleans’ populace in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in an attempt to abandon Charity Hospital’s iconic but neglected facility and to supplant its original safety net mission serving the poor and uninsured for its neoliberal transformation to favor LSU’s academic medical enterprise.
Recommended Citation
Ott, Kenneth Brad, "The Closure of New Orleans' Charity Hospital After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Disaster Capitalism" (2012). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1472.
http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1472