A Catholic-run hospital would become Louisiana State University’s Baton Rouge teaching hospital and get $125 million in improvements under a proposal that would ultimately close the LSU public hospital.
Officials said a memorandum of understanding was signed late Wednesday with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and that the proposed public-private partnership could be completed by Sept. 30.
Once an agreement is final, it would probably take at least two years to complete the construction necessary for LSU to move its Baton Rouge hospital patients to “the Lake,” Dr. Fred Cerise, who oversees health care operations for the LSU system, said Friday.
He said LSU is able to use $24 million originally earmarked to buy land for a new public hospital to replace Earl K. Long Medical Center, which now serves the poor and uninsured.
Whether the rest will be from direct investment, loan guarantees or some other source is not decided, he said.
“That’s part of what’s being worked out right now, is how that will be financed. We’re looking at a number of options,” Cerise said.
LSU announced in December that it was scrapping plans for a new hospital and working on a deal with Our Lady of the Lake, which, with 763 licensed beds, bills itself as the largest private medical center in Louisiana.
Its parent, The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, runs hospitals in three other cities — Monroe, Lafayette and Gonzales.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and health chief Alan Levine support the partnership.
Cerise said LSU would not pay the hospital. Medicare, Medicaid and other sources generally cover “graduate medical education,” the paychecks for recently graduated doctors.
He also doesn’t expect the hospital’s religious affiliation to affect treatment.
The hospital doesn’t have and doesn’t want an obstetrics wing, he said. “We’ll have to do our inpatient OB services at another setting,” he said.
LSU has had some “rotations” — probably fewer than 20 — at Our Lady of the Lake for some time, he said. “We’d be looking at more than 100 once this is done.”—-Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]