In response to recent calls for his resignation by Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle, Capital Area Transit System CEO Bob Mirabito released statistics this week intended to prove critics such as Marcelle wrong.
The figures show CATS ridership was up 34% in January, compared to the same month last year, to approximately 51,000 total trips. Meanwhile, fare box collections were up 29% to $145,000, and on-time performance rose 70%—the highest it has been since Mirabito came to the agency in June 2013, he says.
Marcelle held a press conference last week, at which she lambasted Mirabito for being an ineffective leader, mistreating employees and failing to deliver on bus services promised in the 2012 CATS election.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we’ve accomplished,” Mirabito says. “I don’t think that happens with a weak leader. I’ll let the results speak for themselves.”
Mirabito says he believes Marcelle and a group of the transit agency’s union workers are unhappy with him because of changes he implemented heightening accountability of CATS employees. Union workers make up less than 40% of the CATS workforce, he says.
Also this week, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and several other area hospitals announced their plans to deal with the pending closure of Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Mid City emergency room, scheduled for March 31.
Among the measures: The LSU Health Baton Rouge urgent care clinic, which is located on North Foster Drive a mile and a half from the Mid City ER, will increase its hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, effective March 23. Also, the LSU Health Baton Rouge North Campus Urgent Care Clinic, a 24-hour facility on Airline Highway near the former Earl K. Long charity hospital, is expanding hours for advanced diagnostic services, including CT and MRI.
Our Lady of the Lake also is expanding access at its other clinics around the city. Additional pediatric coverage is planned for the North Campus Urgent Care facility, and additional hours and same-day appointments have been added to pediatric clinics at the OLOL’s Goodwood location near Mid City.
The announcement comes after DHH officials and CEOs of the four area hospitals that have emergency rooms met earlier this week to map out their strategies to deal with the pending Mid City ER closure.
“We are working on strategies to reduce the nonemergency use of emergency rooms,” she says. “We will continue to meet with community leaders and stakeholders, and will aggressively begin work with the coalition to help inform the public on when, where and how to utilize health care access points in our community,” DHH Secretary Kathy Kliebert says.
Check out the full rundown of this week’s Daily Report week in review.
