Latest Katrina aftermath: Louisiana medical schools lay off faculty doctors

Financial shortfalls force two medical schools to cut 330 faculty members.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Jan. 23, 2006.

Pathologist Jane Dry, MD, is stunned, angry and anxiously starting a job search. She is one of 180 of Tulane University School of Medicine's faculty laid off amid sweeping changes that include a 32% cut of the medical school's full-time faculty.

Louisiana State University School of Medicine also instituted widespread layoffs in December 2005, slashing 150 medical school faculty, a 23% reduction.

The cuts leave a large number of physicians newly unemployed with few employment options. An estimated 6,000 physicians were practicing in the area before Hurricane Katrina displaced them, a recent study said. It's unclear how many have returned.

The faculty reductions also have some in the medical community concerned about how the schools' residency programs will fare. "There's a lot of anger about this whole thing," said Dr. Dry, whose last day is Jan. 31. "I'm frantically trying to look for another job. It's not possible to stay. There's nothing in Louisiana."

The local market is flooded with doctors, said Dr. Dry, a Tulane alumna who would like to stay in the area. The national market in her field also has few openings. She's worried about the time her search will take and about the lengthy process of getting licensed in another state.

The job search is over, for now, for New Orleans general surgeon Mike Townsend, MD. He flies to Cape Girardeau, Mo., where he is working at a locum tenens job for an indefinite period, returning to New Orleans every other week to see his family.