[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 20 (Thursday, February 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NEW ORLEANS' TULANE HOSPITAL REOPENS

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, my committee, the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, held a field 
hearing down in the City of New Orleans during the January break. For 
me, it was my second trip to that storm-ravaged area; and, once again, 
you just cannot help but be overwhelmed by the size and the scope of 
the destruction that has happened down on our gulf coast area.
  But Mr. Speaker, although we were there primarily to study the health 
care issues going on, and there were some significant problems down 
there, we saw the facility at LSU, Charity Hospital, one of the 
venerable old institutions in this country's history for training of 
medical doctors, completely in tatters. But there was not all bad news. 
There was some good news. Right across the street at Tulane University 
Medical Center, HCA, the Hospital Corporation of America, had that 
facility almost up and ready to go.
  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report that yesterday they held the 
ribbon-cutting for New Orleans Tulane Hospital as it reopened. In fact, 
Mr. Speaker, according to a news report, more than 100 nurses and 
doctors, in lab coats and scrubs, performed the wave in celebration, 
prompting Mayor Ray Nagin to ask them what was in their coffee. ``I 
don't know what you're taking at Tulane, but I want some of that,'' he 
said.
  Well, Mr. Mayor, it is old-fashioned American ingenuity and 
entrepreneurship. It works every time it is tried. I hope we will see 
more of that down in New Orleans.

                          ____________________