Healthcare prognosis brightens for New Orleans

Despite the mass exodus of doctors from the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina, a journal is reporting that doctors have returned to the city at a rate that has pushed their per-capita number above the national average. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences says the number of doctors in Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Jefferson parishes has grown at from 239 doctors per 100,000 people in 2005 to 256 doctors per 10,000 in 2007. The national average is 237 doctors per 100,000, and the trend in New Orleans is one of many signs indicating the city's healthcare system is recovering, medical professionals say.