Donald Smithburg Quotations

We've almost exhausted local resources, ... We are looking to interstate cooperation on into the next few days to handle this tremendous surge that is exhausting the health care resources and ultimately compromising many hundreds of sick people who are in our hospitals.

We are seeing a domino effect as our Katrina- and Rita-related financial and personnel issues impact our other seven hospitals. With immediate help, we can keep the Charity system on its feet and continue to heal. Without it, Louisiana public health care will fall.

We've requested security for all of our facilities, but unfortunately we've almost tapped out our National Guard resources,

should tour the facility so he can see for himself the extent of the damage.

We are a bus crash away from complete and total disaster.

The opportunity to maximize limited dollars through collaboration with the VA is immense, bold, and compelling in our post-Katrina environment.

We are going to build newer, more modern facilities that will withstand the test of time. They will withstand the next storm, and the one after that.

Even before the storms, these old facilities were on the ropes.

The (old) facilities are unusable for health care purposes, ... That doesn't mean the public hospital system is down and out.

The buildings have unsafe air to breathe, pervasive mold growing, and mechanical systems that were completely destroyed by the storm.

It's not really up to the hospitals to decide what the health care delivery system should be.

How many will stay, how many will repatriate to New Orleans has yet to be determined. But we know we have a responsibility to care for the underinsured, the uninsured.