Ronald Andrews grew up in Houston, and always assumed that he would end up returning there to take over his father’s medical practice. But as he was finishing his residency in New Orleans, he was recruited to Baton Rouge by Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center CEO Robert Davidge, who dreamed of opening clinics in underserved areas of the city.
Andrews helped open the OLOL Neighborhood Clinic in Scotlandville, which was an immediate success, catering largely to people who don’t qualify for Medicare but can’t afford private insurance. Patients are charged on a sliding scale, based on ability to pay. The clinic was busy from the first day it opened, he says.
“They made me an offer I pretty much couldn’t refuse at the time,” Andrews says. “I never thought we’d really settle in Baton Rouge. Something about Mr. Davidge’s vision and what he was trying to achieve, I guess it pulled at my heartstrings. Seven years later, I‘m still here.”
Andrews serves on the boards for East Baton Rouge Parish Head Start, the parish’s Workforce Investment Board and Health Care Centers in Schools, which provides basic medical services such as immunizations in public schools. He’s the chief of medicine at Woman’s Hospital and the medical director of a clinic based at a Wal-Mart in LaPlace.
He says Baton Rouge’s “old guard” could stand to be more open to young, talented people from outside the area.
“When someone new comes in, the channels are not open to break through,” he says, leading many young people to move on to a more progressive city.
If you could have a job other than your own, what would it be?
“Everyone always told me if I didn’t become a doctor, I should be a lawyer. I never made it to the NBA, either.”
Comments
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)