Charity Hospital

Charity Hospital is one of two teaching hospitals which are part of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO).

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Charity Hospital building on Tulane Avenue

Organization.

Charity Hospital is one of several public hospitals around the state of Louisiana administered by the Louisiana State University System. Charity Hospital and the nearby University Hospital are both teaching hospitals affiliated with the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO).

Charity Hospital is located in the New Orleans Hospital District. It is on the opposite side of I-10 from the LSU Health Sciences Center. The address is 1532 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112-1352. Phone: (504) 903.2311.

History.

Charity Hospital was founded on May 10, 1736 by a grant from the French sailor and shipbuilder Jean Louis, who died in New Orleans the year before. His last will and testament was to finance a hospital for the indigent in the colony of New Orleans from his estate. His hospital has served the poor in New Orleans for over 250 years. Charity Hospital was originally named the Hospital of Saint John or L’Hospital des Pauvres de la Charite` (French:Hospital for the Poor). The first Charity Hospital was located on the intersection of Chartres Street and Bienville Street in what is now the French Quarter. The hospital was founded eighteen years after the city was founded by France in 1718. It is the second oldest continually operated public hospital in the United States. Only Bellevue Hospital in New York City is older. It was founded a month earlier on March 31, 1736.

Charity Hospital quickly outgrew its original facility, and a second hospital was built at the edge of the colony on Basin Street in 1743. A third hospital was built nearby in 1785. It was renamed the San Carlos Hospital in honor of King Charles III, King of Spain, after the New Orleans was ceded to Spain in 1763.

A fire destroyed this hospital in 1809. Without a building, a temporary hospital was established at the Cabildo for a month, then at the Jourdan residence in the Faubourg Marigny for 6 months, then the dilapidated De La Vergne plantation for 5 years while a fourth hospital was built. This new hospital was built at the edge of the city on Canal Street where the Fairmont Hotel is currently located. The hospital was completed in 1815, but this hospital was widely criticized as inadequate and underfunded.

A fifth hospital was built within Girod, Gravier, St. Mary, and Common Streets in the Faubourg St. Marie in 1832. This hospital came under the administration of the Sisters of Charity, who would run the hospital for the next century. Under their care, Charity Hospital would become a celebrated institution of healing in the city.

By the 20th century, the city of New Orleans was rapidly expanding, and the demand for indigent medical services again exceeded the capacity of the existing Charity Hospital. A sixth hospital was built in on Tulane Avenue in 1939. With 2,680 beds, this hospital was the second largest hospital in the United states at the time. The new LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO) was built adjacent to Charity Hospital in 1931. Serving one of the largest populations of uninsured citizens, Charity Hospital also boasts the #2 Level I Trauma Center in the nation, with the #1 rank belonging to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources (DHH) took control of Charity Hospital in 1970. The hospital was transferred to the Louisiana Health Care Authority (LHCA) in 1991, then to the LSU System in 1997.

Hurricane Katrina.

Like its sister hospital, University Hospital, Charity Hospital sustained severe flood damage during Hurricane Katrina. The evacuation of patients from the flooded hospital made national headlines. After the storm, a temporary clinic named the Spirit of Charity was established at the Convention Center. The temporary Spirit of Charity Clinic was later relocated to the New Orleans Centre building adjacent to the Superdome, but by February on 2007, a renovated University Hospital, has taken over the responsibilities of emergency care to the city which Charity originally provided.

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The future of Charity Hospital itself remains in question. LSUHSC has announced that it is planning to build a new modern facility nearby named the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO). If funding for such a hospital is approved by the Louisiana State Legislature, the new hospital would consolidate the functions of both Charity Hospital and University Hospital.