Andrew Sandler
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUPROWELL: What is the work you do at the Maison Hospitaliere?
SANDLER: I am the administrator of Maison Hospitaliere, a ninety-four bed skilled nursing home that is run by a board of directors. Located in the French Quarter, Maison Hospitaliere has been around since the Civil War.
ROWELL: What is its specific practice?
SANDLER: It is a skilled nursing facility with residents who are sixty-five and older. In the old days, such facilities were called nursing homes. Now they call them "skilled nursing facilities," because we take Medicare.
ROWELL: Are you a physician?
SANDLER: No, I am a Ph.D., not an M.D. I am not a physician.
ROWELL: What are your specific duties?
SANDLER: I am responsible for the administration of the entire facility. I mean I could go on and on and on about my responsibilities. I have twenty-four hour accountability. I directly supervise the entire department heads, report to the board of directors, and create the budget.
ROWELL: You have major responsibilities—overwhelming, no doubt. When you heard that Hurricane Katrina was approaching and would probably hit New Orleans, what did you and your staff do to prepare for it?
SANDLER: It was probably the biggest challenge of my life. First of all, I have got to tell you that I am a Yankee. I am not from the South and I was very much afraid. When I became administrator, the city had all the confidence that a storm would hit New Orleans. I saw [End Page 1457] videos with the Office of Emergency showing us how the whole French Quarter would be under water. That just scared me and, frankly, when I came to Maison Hospitaliere, there was nothing in place. So to start off, there had to be a lot of planning involved. When hurricanes came to this area, we had not had a direct hit in a long time. The staff and everybody took shelter in this place—that is, they didn't go anywhere. There had never been an evacuation from Maison Hopsitaliere. My board of directors and I felt strongly, and with good reason, that there would be great difficulties leaving, considering how hard it is on the residents when you have to transfer them form point A to point B, especially when you are sitting in traffic. So the staff and I developed a very good emergency plan to deal with the hurricane. We had a generator, enough water, food, medicine, and all of that. We also had a bus-transportation contact and I had a place to go. Originally, we were going to evacuate to a campsite in Covington, Louisiana. Had we gone there, we would have been worse off, because the hurricane hit that area very hard. At any rate, we had to plan for both events, leaving or staying.
What makes our facility very lucky is that the French Quarter is the highest altitude of New Orleans, and it has never flooded. Then, too, our building has a second floor. Therefore, we had good reason to believe that if we had a hurricane, we would be safe if we sheltered in place. So, the obvious responsibilities speak for themselves.
I know you want to talk about Hurricane Katrina. But let me talk a little more about past history. Last year, there was a hurricane coming towards New Orleans, and we did have the opportunity to go to a campsite. We had the option of buses coming at that point. We had about seventy residents here. My department heads would go to either place, but the nursing assistants, housekeeping, and dietary staffs were willing to stay here with the residents. When I said that we were going to leave, they were not going to go with us. If you are going to move, you need a certain number of people to get on and off a bus. Therefore, we sheltered in house. Everything worked out fine. When Katrina was coming, the same...
