KINDRED HEALTHCARE PROVIDING ASSISTANCE TO EMPLOYEES AFFECTED BY HURRICANE KATRINA
Louisville, KY (September 15, 2005) – Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (the “Company”) (NYSE: KND) today announced that it successfully evacuated its hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has been providing assistance to employees who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. In addition, the Company’s nursing center in Mobile, Alabama, remained open throughout the storm and its Mobile KPS Pharmacy was fully functional within 72 hours.
On September 2, the Company safely evacuated all 54 patients and approximately 240 staff and family members from its New Orleans hospital, primarily to its hospitals in the Houston market, as well as other hospitals in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles, Louisiana. The New Orleans hospital suffered some damage during the hurricane but patient health and safety were not impacted.
“We were fortunate that our hospital was not flooded and we were able to maintain safe operations at all times,” said Paul J. Diaz, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. “I am most proud that our people and systems performed well throughout this crisis. Our Gulf Coast employees showed incredible courage and leadership during this unprecedented disaster. There are many people that made this happen, but I especially want to thank Jan Turk, the Chief Executive Officer of Kindred Hospital New Orleans, our New Orleans staff who never wavered from their devotion to our patients, and Jim Novak, Senior Vice President of the South Region in the Hospital Division. Jan and Jim were tenacious in making sure that the patients, staff and family members were protected throughout this incredible ordeal.”
The Company implemented its disaster recovery plan prior to the hurricane in order to ensure the safety of its patients. Part of the plan included making sure the hospital’s emergency generators would remain functional during the storm and its aftermath. Fortunately, Kindred’s hospital was one of the few buildings in the Garden District that was operational under emergency generator power and was not flooded. Also, as part of the plan, the Company’s information systems infrastructure, which stores electronic medical records locally, also duplicates them on a central server and backup systems off site. This system allowed the Company to electronically send copies of evacuated patients’ records to the other Kindred hospitals in Houston where many of the patients were moved. In cases where patients were evacuated to non-Kindred hospitals, the Company was able to print the records and ship them to the receiving hospital.
Since the Company’s evacuation, Kindred Hospital New Orleans has been used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government agencies as a command center. Because the Company is currently unable to operate Kindred Hospital New Orleans, it has taken several initial steps to assist approximately 250 New Orleans-area employees who work for Kindred Hospital New Orleans, KPS Pharmacy Services or Peoplefirst Rehabilitation.
Kindred has established a specific help line number for employees and for families of patients - 1-888-836-8810. Employees are encouraged to stay in contact with the Company through this number. The Company has established a job bank within the Kindred network for those employees who want to work at another location and is providing relocation assistance for anyone who wants to move within the Kindred system. In addition, the Company is providing counseling and assistance to the affected employees, as well as other resources as needed. Kindred has also taken measures to ensure that employees who were displaced by the hurricane continue to receive benefits for the immediate future.
In addition, the Kindred Foundation made a gift of $250,000 to The HOPE Fund, a tax-exempt charitable organization, to assist its employees with any urgent needs they may have and, in order to help with the broad relief efforts in the Gulf Coast, the Kindred Foundation made a $100,000 gift to the American Red Cross earmarked for this national disaster.
Kindred Healthcare, Inc. through its subsidiaries operates hospitals, nursing centers, institutional pharmacies and a contract rehabilitation services business across the United States.
CONTACT:
Susan E. Moss
Vice President of Corporate Communications
(502) 596-7296
