It chose to incorporate Charity Hospital into the city's new medical center in the lower Mid-City neighborhood.

Charity Hospital was founded on May 10, 1736, by a grant from Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, who died in New Orleans the year before.

This new hospital was built at the edge of the city on Canal Street where The Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel is currently located.

In that year Charity also began its long history as a teaching hospital with the founding of The Medical College of Louisiana by three American physicians new to the city: Dr. Thomas Hunt, of South Carolina, Dr. Warren Stone, of Vermont, and Dr. John Harrison, of Washington, D.C., using various locations including Charity Hospital which was "open every day for the attendance of the students".

When the sixth Charity was built in 1939, the new structure was in the shape of an H, modified to comply with the segregation laws of the time.

[7] By the 20th century, the city of New Orleans was rapidly expanding, and the demand for indigent medical services again exceeded Charity Hospital capacity.

The hospital features two stone bas-reliefs and a cast-aluminum screen called Louisiana at Work and Play, all by artist Enrique Alférez.

The LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (LSUHSC-NO) was built adjacent to Charity Hospital in 1931 under the aegis of Louisiana Governor Huey Pierce Long.

[9] There were reports of hand pumped ventilators being used to breathe for patients and personnel using IV fluids to feed each other after food ran out.

In February 2007, a renovated University Hospital had taken over interim responsibilities of emergency care to the city which Charity originally provided.

"[13] RMJM Hillier determined the art deco building to be structurally sound—with its original design being architecturally exceptional and "ahead of its time."

Rehabilitation into a 21st-century, state-of-the-art facility would be the fastest, most cost-effective way to return quality healthcare and a teaching hospital to New Orleans.

This idea was scrubbed in favor of using University Hospital as an interim hospital and building University Medical Center New Orleans and a new Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System Medical Center in the adjacent neighborhood of lower Mid-City.

[15] The redevelopment project had been long-awaited by city leaders hoping to revitalize the former "booming" central business district that has been suffering since the closure of Charity and surrounding buildings due to Hurricane Katrina.

The episodes often illustrated the rate of violence in New Orleans by chronicling the high volume of patients who were treated in the emergency department with gunshot or stab wounds.

It was also briefly featured in MTV's The Real World: New Orleans, where Kelly stops by to visit her boyfriend Peter, who works there.