While the recently announced closure of Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Mid City emergency room will hit the city’s low-income population in Mid City and North Baton Rouge harder than others in the metro area, downtown residents and workers are also concerned about what it will mean for their ability to access care.
Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer sent an email Monday to Baton Rouge General CEO Mark Slyter and Board Chair Janice Pellar underscoring how many people visit downtown on a daily basis and how they potentially will be at risk without a nearby ER. Rhorer read from the email at the monthly DDD meeting this morning.
“I have been contacted by several people in the downtown area about this announcement—an area with the makeup of thousands of residents, thousands of office workers, visitors at our convention center and hotels, clients and visitors to offices and courts, thousands of the local, state and federal government, including the state Legislature and thousands that attend the public events held in the downtown area,” Rhorer says in the email. He went on to note that more than 100,000 revelers are expected in the area this weekend for downtown’s Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade.
In a letter of their own mailed to dozens of community leaders and received Monday, Pellar and Slyter say the hospital “struggled” with the decision to close the ER, which is slated to happen within 60 days, but add that “without this immediate change … the future viability of our system could be jeopardized.”
The letter goes on to say the hospital’s leadership is collaborating with the state, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and Our Lady of the Lake on a new model of health care for Mid City, which will include the hospital’s redesign of its clinical services, an expansion of the LSU Health BR urgent care clinic and the creation of a temporary clinic location near the existing ER.
“Moving forward in the coming weeks and months, BRG will continue its public service outreach to educate residents and the broader community about access to and the appropriate utilization of health care serves,” the letter from Pellar and Slyter reads.
Several members of the Capital Region Legislative Delegation are holding a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday on the steps of the State Capitol to discuss their concerns about the pending closure. —Stephanie Riegel
