Baton Rouge General Medical Center will move its renowned regional burn center from its Mid City facility to a newly renovated temporary space at the Bluebonnet Boulevard campus in the next three months. But long-term, the hospital is planning to develop a new three-floor burn unit atop the emergency room at the Bluebonnet campus—an undertaking that will cost nearly $40 million and require help from state lawmakers.
Earlier this month, Sen. Yvonne Dorsey submitted a capital outlay request for $20 million on behalf of the hospital. The deadline for requests for the 2016-17 capital outlay budget was Nov. 1. According to the hospital’s request, BRGMC will raise the additional $18 million needed for the project.
In unveiling the hospital’s long-term plans for both its campuses on Wednesday, President and CEO Mark Slyter said the hospital will also seek grant funding to get the project underway. Slyter said state help is warranted for the project because the burn center serves the entire south Louisiana region, including the New Orleans area. Its importance to the region is increasing, he noted, due to the boom in the energy and petrochemical sectors. BRGMC’s burn center treats about 100 patients a year who have been injured in industrial accidents, and the facility is the only verified burn center designated by the American Burn Association.
While the hospital may be able to make a compelling case for its project, it will be up against a lot of competition in the capital outlay bill. The legislative office of facilities planning received literally thousands of requests for construction projects from around the state, and given the area’s critical infrastructure needs it is unclear how the hospital project will fare.
Rep. Steve Carter, who heads the Capital Region delegation, was unaware of the request and says the delegation had not been informed about it yet. Dorsey could not be reached for comment as of this morning’s deadline.
If the burn center request makes it into next year’s capital outlay bill, there is still no guarantee it will get funding. As a new project, it is not eligible to be included in the priority 1 category, but could be placed in priority 2 or priority 5.  Priority 2 projects can receive cash lines of credit during the course of the fiscal year. Priority 5 projects essentially only receive promises of future funding.
—Stephanie Riegel
