The NYTimes Sunday Magazine had a pretty intense article about Memorial Hospital, an institution battered during Hurricane Katrina. The Times has continued to cover various facets and stories stemming from the tragedies during Katrina, and the damage, the aftermath, and the multiple revelations of flaws in our public and private systems, social prejudices and injustices, and capabilities of our government (or lack thereof) are myriad. Katrina is an ideal case study, sadly, for the difficulties in public policy, crisis strategies, big vs. small government, and the government agency and non-profit team effort that running the country has become.
The recent NYTimes article focused on the crisis management and ensuing murder charges that came out of an incredibly difficult, stressful, and tragic situation at one affected hospital during Katrina. The problem with crises is that a crisis only occurs when there are no logical or planned-for responses--if you knew what to do, it wouldn't be a crisis. For all the planning, education, preventative measures, structure, and hierarchies that exist in various organizations, a true crisis throws them all out the window. This is related to the division of public policy and legal or practical implementation--just because you have a great idea of how to solve a problem doesn't mean you will be able to properly structure the system that will actually address it, institutionally, socially, and in the long run.
I apparently really miss classes, because this is the sort of thing I've been thinking about non-stop since I read the article. Check out the piece, and more later...
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