Specialty Hospital of New Orleans

Specialty Hospital of New Orleans was a separately owned long-term acute care unit housed within Touro Infirmary. Accounts of the hospital’s evacuation placed it within the wider post-Katrina crisis over how patients in New Orleans’s medical facilities were cared for and moved to safety. Investigators heard reports of staff departures and later reviewed toxicology findings from some recovered bodies; the evidence identifies those findings but does not establish that every patient received the same care or medication.

Structure and Setting

Specialty Hospital of New Orleans operated as a distinct long-term acute care unit inside Touro Infirmary. The shared setting connected the two institutions during the disaster, while their separate ownership meant the unit was identified separately in accounts given to investigators. The available evidence does not specify its ownership structure beyond that distinction or describe its routine operations before the storm.

Evacuation Accounts

Medical workers from Touro Infirmary and Specialty Hospital of New Orleans told investigators that many colleagues worked to rescue patients, in some cases returning to the hospital to help. They also reported that entire staffs from some units drove out of the hospital garage, leaving patients behind. After the storm, some nurses were fired and reported to the nursing board for abandonment. These accounts describe reported conduct across units at the two institutions; they do not identify each departing worker or assign every reported departure specifically to Specialty Hospital of New Orleans.

Toxicology and the Investigation

Toxicology tests on some bodies found at Touro Infirmary and Specialty Hospital of New Orleans showed high levels of morphine and midazolam, the same combination reported in tests concerning Memorial Medical Center. The results made medication at the two Touro facilities part of investigators’ broader examination of patient deaths during the disaster. The evidence does not establish from these findings alone who administered the drugs, the circumstances of each patient’s treatment, or the intent behind it.