(AP) — The closure of LSU’s public hospital in Baton Rouge left employees, community leaders and local lawmakers declaring a breach of the public’s trust, criticizing a lack of information and describing a litany of unanswered concerns.
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration would be wise to take lessons from those hard feelings as the governor seeks to privatize eight other university-run hospitals around Louisiana that care for the uninsured and that train many of the state’s medical students.
Jindal needs the transitions to go smoothly to ensure patient access to critical health services; to keep from disrupting the state’s pipeline of medical professionals; and to persuade federal officials to back the financing to pay for the lease arrangements.
Politically, a less contentious transition could help Jindal’s
sagging poll numbers and strained relationships with lawmakers.
Without buy-in from the public, local communities and hospital workers, that is more difficult to achieve — and in many ways, the shuttering of Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge offers a road map for the pitfalls and problems.
Earl K. Long closed its doors a week ago, with most of its inpatient care picked up by Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. The private hospital also took over operation of LSU’s outpatient clinics in the city.
More than 770 LSU employees were laid off. Our Lady of the Lake said it hired about 350 new workers.
Days after the closure, hospital employees said they had unanswered questions about retirement and pay issues, said they were treated poorly during the transition and said their patients received so little information that it heightened their fear and health concerns.
“We were kept in the dark until the very end,” Kim Burkett, an emergency room nurse at Earl K. Long for 22 years, said at a gathering of about 400 former hospital workers and residents saying their goodbyes to EKL.
“If it was (the governor’s) family who was affected, like our patients’ families were affected, this would never have happened,” Burkett said.
Amber Savant, another ER nurse for the hospital, reiterated similar concerns and described patients in tears with worry about how the changes could impact their care and would split them from doctors and nurses they’d known for years.
“There’s been no communication,” she said.
Baton Rouge resident Joyce Turner Keller told lawmakers the people who rely on the university-run hospital system felt dismissed when trying to get information.
“As a citizen, my voice was not heard. Neither were the people’s voices in the community. You started this process without us. You’re ending this process without us,” she said.
Even the local legislators, Republican and Democrat, criticized the handling of the closure and worried that gaps in care remain for pregnant women, prisoners and mental health services.
Sen. Bodi White, R-Baton Rouge, said he was told in 2010 that questions of access would be answered before Earl K. Long was closed. He said those questions still remained.
“This whole process has been a betrayal of the public’s trust. We have dismantled the core values of access, respect and excellence in this process,” said Sen. Sharon Broome, D-Baton Rouge.
Jindal decided to close Earl K. Long rather than build a new replacement hospital.
The privatization effort for the rest of the public hospitals came after Louisiana received a steep cut in its federal Medicaid financing rate and Jindal chose to levy most of the cut on the LSU public hospital system.
Jindal said turning over management of the hospitals to private operators will enhance care and modernize a hospital system he describes as outdated, while cutting state costs.
“This is an improvement in terms of providing health care, saving Louisiana taxpayers, reducing spending over $100 million in our budget, providing a better working environment for our residents and our medical students. We think these are very good deals,” he said.
Few deals are final. Details of the lease agreements remain sketchy, along with the financing plans. And concerns about the hospital patients, employees and students loom large.
So far, not much different from Earl K. Long.
