LSU shelves hospital plan

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Dec 4, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LSU is shelving plans to build a new public hospital in Baton Rouge to replace the antiquated Earl K. Long Medical Center, LSU System Vice President Fred Cerise said Wednesday.

Instead, Cerise said LSU is negotiating a deal with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. Known locally as the Lake, the facility on Essen Lane would become LSU’s teaching hospital and home to medical education programs that help train the state’s future physicians.

Earl K. Long Medical, which serves the poor and uninsured, would close and its traditional patients would be admitted to the Lake.

Under the plan, LSU would continue to have “a strong presence” in north Baton Rouge, where EKL is located, Cerise said. A new modern clinic is under construction on Airline Highway near EKL, he said.

And, Cerise said, LSU would operate outpatient medical clinics around the city with extended hours and days of operation.

Patients needing hospitalization would be admitted to the Lake by LSU doctors.

Cerise and Scott Wester, chief executive officer of the Lake, said they hope to have details worked out by spring so the Louisiana Legislature can consider changes in state law or potential construction program alterations that may be needed.

The closure of EKL and the move of its medical programs to the Lake would occur over a two-to-three year time period, both said.

“I am very pleased where we are at this point,” Wester said.

Cerise said LSU started talking with Lake executives about a month-and-a-half ago as it searched for an alternative to new hospital construction.

“We were very close to land purchase,” Cerise said, “but at the same time were coping with the fact that once we had the land, we would have to be able to build. The prospects of building in the current fiscal posture of the state seemed unlikely.”

State government authorized LSU to spend $24 million on planning and land purchase for a hospital and trauma center. The state construction program includes $311.9 million to build a 175-to-200 bed hospital. Major projects are pretty much on hold because of the state’s financial constraints.

Replacement of the hospital has been discussed for decades. Conditions have led to threats of loss of hospital and graduate medical education accreditation. Either loss would have closed the EKL hospital.