Companies boost morale post-Katrina - New Orleans City Business

12 2005 Best Places to Work
KENNER REGIONAL
MEDICAL CENTER
KATRINA HIGHLIGHTS
• $3-million disaster relief fund for all impacted
employees in which Tenet matched $2 for
every $1 raised
• 10 weeks of disaster relief pay; first two
checks consisted of full weekly pay; last three
checks equaled 50 percent of normal pay
• Relocation assistance to other Tenet hospitals
Source: CityBusiness staff research
The Kenner Regional Medical Center Engineering
Department team was critical to running the
hospital during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Registered nurse Erica Bellocq and Kenneth Custard, supervisor of endoscopy, treat patient Agnes White.
KENNER REGIONAL from page 11
$3,000, based on need.
“Tenet committed to New Orleans early.
They were one of the first corporations to
immediately state their intentions of returning
here,” said Jack Khashou, Kenner Regional
Medical Center’s director of business development.
“They wanted to show the city and
its employees they were committed for the
long haul and make it work. It was nice to see
corporate make such an important decision
fast and cater to their employees’ needs.”
Kenner Regional first reopened its emergency
department Sept. 24. Employees who
could not return to work in Kenner were
offered relocation assistance to other Tenet
hospitals. Khashou estimates the hospital has
about 50 percent of its original employees
back with 15 to 20 employees living in the
hospital rooms because they had extensive
damage to their homes.
Vivian Reed, a laboratory phlebotomist at
Kenner Regional, lost her home near the
Industrial Canal and lived in the hospital for
a period of time before moving in with a family
member.
“We had sheets, towels, uniforms, pretty
much everything we needed at our disposal,”
Reed said. “It was like an extended family,
getting to know employees you really weren’t
used to talking at length to, and everybody
was asking each other if they could help each
other out in any kind of way.”
Reed said the hospital staff brought
portable air-conditioning units to each
department and provided food and water
throughout the day for employees.
Debbie LeBlanc, a registered nurse for
eight years at Kenner Regional, said the ability
for the hospital to reopen as fast as they
did “restored some normalcy to our lives.”
LeBlanc said her husband did not receive
continued pay through his job after Katrina,
so the nonstop payroll helped the LeBlancs
pay bills.
“I don’t know what we would have done
if it weren’t for that. Most bills were deferred,
but you still have to pay them,” she said.
Debbie Alongia, a registered nurse in the
infection control and employee health department,
worked at the hospital during Katrina.
Alongia said the camaraderie among employees
was heightened to a degree she has never
seen in her 20 years at Kenner Regional.
“We worked very hard and were proud of
what we did during the storm,” she said. “We
put our best foot forward. There was not any
job that was too low for any of us to do and we
did whatever was needed to be done to get us
through everything.”
The acts of employer kindness from
Katrina were not surprising to many Kenner
Regional employees, who said the hospital
has always been an employee-friendly place
to work because of its small hospital atmosphere
and an administration that is often visible
catering to each department’s needs.
Standard Kenner Regional employee
benefits include Tenet stock at a discounted
price; lump-sum accumulation of sick leave;
vacation days that never expire; full-time
benefits beginning for employees who average
32 hours weekly; a free fitness center; and
a student loan repayment program.
In 2004, Kenner Regional was ranked
No. 2 in patient satisfaction among Tenet
hospitals nationwide.•