Issue date: 1/20/06 Section: News

Brian Wills - The Battalion 'Hurricane Katrina Response Team' (clockwise from left) Ashley Dias, Lauren Johnson, Kelly Hilands (of Skanska USA Building Inc.), Jackie Russel, Elisha Killgore. The team won the Skanska USA Building Inc. University Grant Project Competition for their design plans for Louisiana hospitals.

SOURCE: Emergency Space Solutions for the LSU Health Care Services Division - New Orleans [Click to enlarge]

Louisiana healthcare systems may experience upgrades after city officials view design plans submitted by a team of Texas A&M seniors.

Four A&M architecture students won first place in the Skanska USA Building Inc. University Grant Project Competition for proposed plans to upgrade health facilities in New Orleans.

The team was notified of the win during the first week of January.

The team received $5,000 for its design, which included a two-part solution, said George J. Mann, the Ronald L. Scaggs endowed professor of health facilities design at A&M.

"They focused on installation of modular clinics around New Orleans in times of disaster and also a more long-range idea to replace the existing Charity Hospital, which was pretty much knocked out during Katrina," Mann said.

Plans to rebuild the hospital include wider hallways to accommodate beds, a large lawn on which care can be given and increased emergency medical care space within the hospital itself, Mann said.

"The reason that Charity Hospital failed during Katrina was because it couldn't handle mass inflow of people needing immediate emergency care," said Ashley Dias, a senior environmental design major and member of the design team.

The modular clinics would provide patient care during the hospital's transitional period, said environmental design major Lauren Johnson, a member of the design team.

"These clinics will serve as replacement care while the hospital is being rebuilt, but also as supplemental care facilities once the new Charity Hospital is built," Johnson said. "Things like cancer clinics."

The team originally planned to address the topic of managing emergency department overcrowding, but chose to address New Orleans' medical center problems after the hurricane hit, said senior environmental design major Elisha Kilgore, a design team member.

The students visited Baton Rouge following Katrina for a better sense of the damages and to meet with officials who run the Louisiana hospitals, Mann said.

The true impact of the project sank in when the team visited Louisiana, said Jackie Russel, a senior environmental design major and member of the student design team.

"After visiting Baton Rouge I got a sense of how important it was," Russel said. "These people's lives had been turned upside down."

The design will not necessarily be used for the new medical facilities, but was offered as a suggestion, Mann said.

The team was dedicated and creative when working on the project, Mann said in a press release issued by the College of Architecture.

"The students were emotionally struck by Katrina's devastation and decided to do something about it," Mann said. "In presenting the award, Skanska recognized the very real contribution these students have made to the people of Louisiana."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools