In the weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina, the California Nurses' Association sent over 300 nurses to 25 healthcare clinics and facilities in the Gulf Coast. So it made sense, three years later, for the union to check in on the state of the region's health care system and take stock of its string of failures.

"Broken Levees, Broken Lives: A Post-Katrina Focus On Health" by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee(CNA/NNOC)

With scores of community groups and political leaders in favor of its continuing, why is it taking so long to reopen New Orleans’ Charity Hospital? Those waiting patiently for a rebirth include not only members of the Louisiana State Legislature, the New Orleans city council and the New Orleans police department, but former Charity Hospital physicians, nurses, labor groups, District Court judges, the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, ACORN, church groups, Total Community Action and many others.

So what’s the hold up?