Official: LSU in talks for new EKL

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 18, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LSU is in negotiations to purchase property for a new university teaching hospital and trauma center in south Baton Rouge, a top LSU official said Thursday.

“We are making progress on that site,” LSU System health-care chief Fred Cerise told the LSU Board of Supervisors.

He refused to say exactly where.

Cerise said he wants to purchase the property by the end of the summer.

The new LSU hospital would replace the antiquated Earl K. Long Medical Center on Airline Highway in north Baton Rouge. The state has been talking about a new hospital for decades and investigated purchasing all or part of existing facilities or building a new hospital.

Largely because of the condition of the facility, the EKL Medical Center has been threatened with loss of accreditation by hospital and medical education bodies. Such a move would lead to a loss of funds to operate.

“When you do finally acquire land for Earl K. Long, we are going to have a serious party at Earl K. Long,” said Dr. Jack Andonie, chairman of the LSU Board’s health-care and medical education committee.

State government authorized LSU to spend $24 million on planning and land purchase on the hospital-trauma center — $12 million in cash and another $12 million in self-generated revenue.

Cerise declined to disclose the location of the property other than to say, “We are still looking around the other hospitals.”

In recent years, LSU has investigated property in the area of the so-called “medical corridor” off Interstate 10 between Essen Lane and Bluebonnet Boulevard.

Cerise said there has been no indication from Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office “that they don’t want us to proceed.”

Jindal got involved in LSU’s proposal to build a new medical center and trauma center in a joint venture development with the U.S. Office of Veterans Affairs. He had state Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine rework the business plan for the project. That resulted in a reduction in the size of the hospital.

“We don’t have agreement on the size of the facility in Baton Rouge. Once we acquire property we will get more into the detailed design,” Cerise said.