Plans are moving forward for the University to close Earl K. Long Medical Center and move its graduate medical teaching facilities and in-patient care to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital.The agreement to move from Earl K. Long to OLOL was approved March 19 by the State Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.The vote was originally scheduled for Feb. 5, but lawmakers pushed the decision back to further study the terms of the agreement.”The next step is to work out the details of moving the program to Our Lady of the Lake,” said Marvin McGraw, LSU Medical Health Care Services director of media relationsThe University’s Board of Supervisors and OLOL officials previously approved the cooperative endeavor agreement, McGraw said.The state will invest a total of $38 million in the project. Constructing a new facility was considered, but it would have cost the state more than $400 million, he said.  The University hopes to have facilities ready by 2014, McGraw said Sixty beds will be added to OLOL to balance the anticipated increase in patients, he said.OLOL’s patient load is expected to increase by 10 percent, said Catherine Harrell, Our Lady of the Lake spokesperson.A level one trauma center and a medical education building, which will be donated to the University, will be built on OLOL’s campus, McGraw said.The University will also construct a 24-hour urgent care center in north Baton Rouge near Earl K. Long.—-Contact Grace Montgomery at [email protected].