Ochsner Health System

Ochsner Health System is a local nonprofit hospital system whose purchase of Memorial Medical Center brought a new owner to a hospital marked by the Katrina crisis. The acquisition was part of a sale of three New Orleans hospitals by Tenet Healthcare. Ochsner’s role also extends into the book’s account of what changed afterward: the partially reopened hospital and its later infrastructure improvements show how ownership and disaster preparedness became connected in Memorial’s aftermath.

Acquisition and Reopening

As Ochsner completed its purchase of Memorial, the hospital partially reopened under the Baptist name. The transaction involved three New Orleans hospitals; the purchase price was reported later. The book situates the change of ownership amid ongoing disagreement about how Memorial’s crisis should be remembered and who bore responsibility for it.

That disagreement surfaces in the response of Horace Baltz to a letter of appreciation that Richard Deichmann sent to Memorial’s medical staff. Baltz objected to Deichmann’s praise, arguing that disaster service was an ordinary professional obligation rather than an act of valor. He had worked at Baptist through every hurricane except Betsy, when he volunteered at a high-school medical station. His criticism focused on what he considered the failures within Memorial: securing medications, maintaining professional ethics, arranging safe destinations before dispatching evacuees, and holding hospital leadership accountable. Ochsner’s arrival did not erase that dispute; the acquisition took place against a background in which the institution’s conduct remained contested.

Post-Katrina Infrastructure

By the 2013 hurricane season, improvements at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center included new and restored electrical generators and power-transfer switches. The central-plant infrastructure had been raised onto a platform, and a new water well was intended to help maintain cooling systems if city water service failed. These changes addressed vulnerabilities in power and water systems that could threaten a hospital’s ability to function during an emergency.

The heliport was also restored, with an additional elevator stop connecting it directly to the new neonatal intensive care unit. This linked an air-evacuation route to a critical-care destination inside the hospital. Together, the upgrades show preparedness as a combination of backup utilities, protected infrastructure, and practical routes for moving patients—not simply a plan on paper.

Institutional Significance

The book presents Ochsner both as the organization that acquired and partially reopened Memorial and as the institution associated with specific post-Katrina improvements. Those later changes offer a concrete contrast with the vulnerabilities exposed during the crisis: generators and transfer switches addressed electrical resilience, raised plant infrastructure and a well addressed cooling and water contingencies, and the restored heliport supported patient movement.

The contrast does not resolve the moral argument voiced by Baltz about Memorial’s leadership and staff conduct. Rather, the account places physical preparedness alongside the continuing question of institutional responsibility. Ochsner’s acquisition changed who operated the hospital; the listed upgrades indicate how the institution also adapted its facilities in response to lessons drawn from Katrina.