Ochsner Baptist Medical Center

Ochsner Baptist Medical Center is a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. The complex of Hospital buildings is located on Napoleon Avenue in Uptown New Orleans.



Formerly known as Southern Baptist Hospital, it was founded in 1926 by the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1969, the religious organization separated itself from the hospital (and several others) and Southern Baptist Hospital became an independent non-profit entity. In the early 1980s the hospital spent over $100,000,000 (Project 2000) to add to and renovate the original building. In 1990 it merged with Mercy Hospital located near the end of Bayou St. John on Jefferson Davis Parkway and the two hospitals operated as Mercy-Baptist Medical Center with the old Southern Baptist Hospital called the Uptown Campus and Mercy called the Mid-City campus. The combined hospitals were acquired by Tenet Healthcare and the old Baptist Hospital was renamed Memorial Medical Center in 1996. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Tenet sold several of its hospitals in New Orleans to Ochsner Health System and the name was changed to Ochsner Baptist Medical Center in 2006 bringing a portion of the original name back into use..

The hospital has been the official healthcare provider of the New Orleans Saints football team since 1967 when the Saints made Dr. Ken Saer the team's original orthapedic surgeon.

The hospital and the area around it flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, rendering the hospital an island with the bottom floor flooded, with no electricity or other utilities after the emergency generators ran out of fuel. The hospital was closed after the surviving patients and staff were able to be evacuated after several days. The hospital remained closed through 2005 and into 2006, and management discussed demolishing the main hospital buildings rather than refurbishing them.

National attention was drawn to the hospital when CNN reported on October 12, 2005 that the Louisiana attorney general was investigating the possibility that mercy killings of critically ill patients by staff medical professionals at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans occurred while staff and patients were stranded in the hospital after Hurricane Katrina. On September 13, 2005 Tenet Healthcare Corporation stated: "No patients drowned nor did any die as a result of lack of food or drinking water." However, others have claimed that bodies were removed in large numbers from the building and that a female physician may have given lethal injections of morphine to patients.

On 29 June, 2006, Tenet announced that Memorial and three other hospitals in Greater New Orleans were among eleven they planned to sell by mid 2007.

On 18 July, 2006, the Louisiana Attorney General's office announced that Doctor Anna Pou and two nurses were arrested in connection with deaths in the Post-Katrina crisis, and may be charged with second degree murder. On July 24, 2007 it was announced that a Louisiana grand jury declined to indict Pou.

On 19 July, 2006, Ochsner Health System announced they are acquiring Memorial Medical Center along with two other Tenet Hospitals in the Greater New Orleans area, Meadowcrest Hospital in Gretna, Louisiana and Kenner Regional Medical Center in Kenner, Louisiana. The sale is expected to be finalized by the end of August.