New Orleans East Hospital opens quietly, still seeking accreditation

The highly anticipated New Orleans East Hospital opened its doors earlier this month to little fanfare. After nine years of talk about the importance of restoring emergency room services and surgical care in a section of New Orleans hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, city leaders did little to publicize the July 12 launch of operations at the publicly owned facility. City and hospital leaders say that even though the $130-million, 80-bed public hospital is now seeing patients, they're waiting until August to hold a public celebration. That's because the hospital is still in somewhat of a limbo period while it seeks national accreditation from The Joint Commission, the nation's leading health care accreditation body.