HCA Inc. says it's too soon to say when — or even if — it can reopen Tulane University Hospital & Clinic, which was left flooded and powerless when Hurricane Katrina thrashed New Orleans a week ago.
 
"No one knows what's going to happen," HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said yesterday.
 
It could be several weeks before inspectors can even reach the hospital to assess the damage, Prescott said. HCA executives said the hospital, a partnership between the Nashville-based health-care company and Tulane University, sustained relatively little wind damage in last week's storm but flooded when a levee collapsed.
 
Power to the hospital went out when the storm came ashore early Aug. 29. The backwater swamped an emergency generator on the Tulane hospital's ground floor, and a backup generator on the second floor gave out Aug. 30.
 
With no air conditioning and temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s, "there's the potential for mold and all kinds of things like that," Prescott said. There's also a possibility of structural damage from the flooding, he said.
 
Another question is "what's going to happen to the surrounding neighborhoods?" Prescott said.
 
Officials say it could be weeks before floodwaters recede and power is restored and months before houses are repaired or rebuilt, meaning it could be months until the hospital has patients again.
 
"It's really too early to assess what the eventual outcome might be there," Prescott said.
 
HCA also closed Lakeside Hospital in suburban Metairie, La., as part of a broad evacuation of the New Orleans area, but there was no flooding in the hospital, so it's "likely" that facility will reopen, Prescott said.
 
But when asked whether it also was likely the Tulane hospital would reopen, he said, "That's just unknown."
 
"We do not know, and until we do know, I don't want to speculate," Prescott said.
 
HCA acquired Tulane University Hospital & Clinic in 1995 through an 80-20 financial joint venture with the school. Tulane University officials, who evacuated to Houston, didn't return calls yesterday.
 
HCA, which will continue to pay displaced employees their full salaries until the company can find new jobs for them, has said it was insured for loss of property and business and that it doesn't believe the effect of the storm on its operations would be material to its financial results.
 

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