The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Wednesday examined the difficulties of tracking down physicians who evacuated New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and of bringing physicians back to the city to practice. As many as 4,486 doctors, including 1,270 residents in training, were displaced from Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard parishes in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, according to a University of North Carolina study. Meanwhile, the region's doctor population currently is as low as 1,200, according to the Orleans Parish Medical Society. Post-storm Web sites like Whereismydoctor and Findladocs have facilitated some doctors reconnecting with their patients, but "hundreds of doctors remain unaccounted for," the Times-Picayune reports. Many doctors say that Small Business Administration loans are not enough to bring doctors with private practices back to New Orleans because of uncertain financial factors. Some physicians and hospital administrators say Congress should add New Orleans to federal programs that provide guaranteed salaries to physicians willing to work in areas that have trouble recruiting doctors. Such programs help doctors pay back medical school loans and offer income subsidies for those who operate private practices (Darce, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 2/8).

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