As Champion Medical executives arrive in Baton Rouge this week to discuss improving health care access in north Baton Rouge, the Metro Council will discuss and possibly vote on a resolution today to support the company’s effort to enter into patient transfer agreements with three local major hospitals.
The #NBR Now Blue Ribbon Commission is working to transform Campion Medical Center’s Harding Boulevard facility into a freestanding acute care center.
A patient transfer agreement would allow Champion Medical Center patients to transfer to either Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rouge General Medical Center or Ochsner Medical Center-Baton Rouge after the 96-hour window the law allows them to stay at Champion closes.
Hospital executives expressed caution last week at the proposal and said they would like to learn more details about the agreement before committing to it.
Cleve Dunn Jr., a member of the #NBR Now Blue Ribbon Commission that is working with Champion Medical to create the freestanding acute care center, says the patient transfer agreements could occur without a resolution from the council. However, the council’s support would send a strong message to the community that council members support the commission’s ongoing efforts in north Baton Rouge, Dunn says.
“I’m very happy and confident at the way things are progressing,” he says.
Also, the council will vote on whether to add the Baton Rouge Health District to the city-parish’s FuturEBR comprehensive master plan. The item was deferred from the Metro Council Zoning Commission last week. The item’s sponsors had asked it be withdrawn from last week’s meeting agenda, but the council deferred it so the resolutions on the health district and the patient transfer agreements could be taken up at the same time. Council members had to wait until a regular council meeting to make the resolution.
The Health District will proceed as planned with or without the designation, supporters have said. Also at today’s meeting, the Metro Council will formally begin the process to select the city-parish’s bank for the next five years.
Once the council gives the green light, the Council Administrator’s Office will send out about 20 application packets to local banks to see which banks are interested.
The proposals will be due July 29 and the council could approve the winning bid sometime in late August.
The council will also discuss and possibly vote on a resolution approving the Transportation, Technology and Innovation District. The council deferred the item two weeks ago amid discussions and questions about the boundaries, location of the district and whether parts of north Baton Rouge could be included.
John Snow, the vice president of Emergent Method and consultant for the city-parish on this issue, says he and members of Mayor Kip Holden’s staff sent a memo to the council members addressing their concerns and answering their questions.
The Metro Council meets today at 4 p.m. on the 9th floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
—Ryan Broussard
