Despite the growing number of downtown residents and business owners, Lake Urgent Care downtown will be closing its doors at 307 Third St. after more than four years in operation due to low patient volume.
The clinic will close in the next 30 to 60 days.
Officials at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, which owns and operates the clinic, say the cost of running the facility cannot be justified.
“We see a small number of patients at the clinic, only about six to eight a day at the downtown location,” says OLOL spokeswoman Kelly Zimmerman, adding that many patients seek walk-in care closer to their homes.
The clinic opened in November 2011 and was heralded at the time as a shining example of downtown’s growing array of retail and service providers. But while the clinic was widely acknowledged to be an important component of a bustling downtown community, it never generated the kind of patient volume it needed to survive.
After Baton Rouge General Medical Center closed its Mid City emergency room in early 2015, OLOL rebranded the downtown clinic, originally called Lake Quick Care, as Lake Urgent Care. At the time, hospital officials said they were trying to increase awareness among downtown residents about the accessibility and availability of the clinic.
Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer is disappointed about the pending closure and says OLOL could have done more to market and promote the facility, which he says is needed now more than ever.
“I wish they had done a more aggressive marketing campaign,” he says. “There are 26,000 people who work down here. There is a market for it, but you have to know about it.”
OLOL officials will consider other models of service for downtown, namely virtual visits online, Zimmerman says. But no plans for a new walk-in clinic are in the works at this time.
—Stephanie Riegel
