Case Study

New Orleans Department of Health

The New Orleans Health Department continues to confront a series of pressing challenges following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  These include the provision of care for the uninsured, persistent health disparities, and reductions in available mental health services and hospital bed capacity.  In addition, the Health Department requires a sustainable financial solution to provide services.  PFM was hired by City leadership to review the operations and programs of the Department, and recommend operational improvements and programmatic alignments in line with best practices. 

As New Orleans strives to develop, maintain, and ultimately improve healthcare to its citizens, PFM researched best practices and developed a series of recommendations to support the Health Department in working more effectively to improve the health status of New Orleans’ citizens.  These included:  strengthen accountability through a dashboard reporting tool, expand public health services to public and city employees, develop self-supporting health clinics, and coordinate mental health service delivery.  PFM will continue to work with the Department to implement these recommendations.