One year after the winds of Hurricane Katrina subsided, the lessons learned by Louisiana nursing homes are important for all companies in the long-term care industry. This is the second installment of an interview with Joseph Donchess, executive director of the Nursing Home Association of Louisiana (www.lnha.org) on what has happened to the senior living industry in New Orleans and what the industry now knows on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

If you’ve never gone through a hurricane or other major natural disaster, it might be hard to understand how fragile our communications systems are and how isolated we become without them. Even driving across town to deliver a message — something that may seem like the obvious step when phones and power are out — is a challenge; roads are often blocked by water, downed power lines, trees, and debris. As a result, almost all forms of communications can be down for days, or even weeks.

So it’s not a surprise that at the top of Mr. Donchess’ list of lessons learned is the need for some type of communications equipment that works when common forms do not.

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Hurricane Katrina blew great change into the nursing home industry in New Orleans. In an interview with Joseph Donchess, executive director of the Nursing Home Association of Louisiana (www.lnha.org) on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, GMMR discussed those changes and the lessons learned in the past year. This is the first installment in this interview.

“Today, in the four-parish area, 16 to 18 nursing homes remain closed. Many that remain open are operating at a fraction of their capacity,” Mr. Donchess said. There is a real question as to what is the need in the region.

Mr. Donchess said the issue of the region’s need for services was being asked well before Katrina occurred. Today, there is greater urgency to this question as the industry struggles to determine the real need after so many of the nursing home residents were dispersed throughout the United States.

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One of the most horrifying stories to come out of Hurricane Katrina was that of the death of residents at St. Rita’s nursing home.  A member of the family that owned and ran the home told their side of the story on “Good Morning America” this morning … read about it here: http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2369315&page=1