State lawmakers from the Capital Region Legislative Delegation gathered on the steps of the Capitol this morning with dozens of leaders from local community groups and faith-based organizations to protest the recently announced closure of Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Mid City emergency room.
“We are here today to demand—to demand—that the Mid City emergency room stay open until a viable plan has been devised,” said event organizer Alma Stewart, who heads the group Campaign for Health Care for Everyone Louisiana.
Last week, Baton Rouge General announced that mounting losses of some $2 million per month will force the hospital to shutter the facility within 60 days. Though hospital officials have said they are working with Our Lady of the Lake and other community partners on an alternative, which will include opening an urgent care center near the existing hospital, lawmakers said closing a major emergency room in the middle of the city will put everyone at risk.
Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, said residents of Goodwood, Mid City, downtown and Capitol Heights, as well as students at St. Joseph’s Academy, Westdale Elementary and other nearby schools, would be living in a “Jindal death zone” once the emergency room is shut down.
“In less than 60 days we will all be in danger,” Dorsey-Colomb said.
Though Sen. Mack “Bodi” White, R-Central, employed less fiery rhetoric, he, too, said the closure will impact more than just the uninsured and underinsured population that has relied on the emergency room for primary medical care.
“It’s going to affect people in south Baton Rouge, in Zachary and in Central,” said White, one of the few conservative Republicans to join the group today.
Speakers, including former Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary David Hood, suggested one way to keep the ER open would be to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act. Gov. Bobby Jindal has joined other Southern and conservative governors in refusing to do that and isn’t likely to back down from that position. Hood said expanding Medicaid coverage would ensure health care providers are reimbursed for treating the vast majority of 700,000 Louisianans who have no health insurance.
Another solution speakers suggested is to rework the formula the state uses to reimburse providers for caring for the uninsured and Medicaid population. Currently, Our Lady of the Lake is the state’s partner in an agreement that reimburses the hospital almost completely for the cost of providing care to the low-income population, while Baton Rouge General and other non-partner hospitals receive just pennies on the dollar.
“The cooperative endeavor agreement between the state and the Lake needs to be reconfigured,” Dorsey-Colomb said. “But all the parties will have to come to the table, and that’s something no one is willing to do.”
Baton Rouge General President and CEO Mark Slyter tells Daily Report there isn’t much chance the hospital will change its mind on the pending closure.
“We respect the community dialogue taking place and appreciate the community’s desire to have access to ER services,” he said. “Sadly, that time has passed for Baton Rouge General—as we have long championed this discussion.”
In a press release issued today by Baton Rouge General, the hospital says it is undertaking “extensive community education and staff engagement efforts to help ensure an effective transition” as it moves forward with the ER closure.
“We’re making patient information available throughout the Mid City hospital, and starting next week we’ll have an information desk staffed every afternoon and early evening in the patient waiting area at the Mid City ER,” says George Bell, Baton Rouge General’s Mid City administrator.
The hospital says its website for the Mid City campus will serve as an update center during the transition. Meanwhile, the hospital is directing patients to the Better Access to Care Coalition website for information on accessing emergency and other types of health care.
The hospital also plans to coordinate with neighbors, area churches and civic organizations to get information into the community in preparation for the transition. BRG will also hold community and neighborhood information sessions next month to help patients and area residents understand how and where they can access health care services in the event of an emergency.
—Stephanie Riegel
