LSU filed suit this afternoon against the Biomedical Research Foundation in Shreveport, the private manager of its hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe. The suit was filed in 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge and comes one day after the university notified BRF it was terminating its management contract.
The 44-page lawsuit basically spells out LSU’s reasons for terminating its contract with BRF, which issued a statement Thursday saying it would not step down, and the allegations are broad and sweeping.
In the lawsuit, LSU accuses BRF of seeking to undermine the leadership of LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreveport by allegedly trying to have the chancellor and vice chancellors removed; failing to support and promote the hospital’s academic mission; failing to act collaboratively and cooperatively with LSU; and failing to establish a sustainable and competitive business model. The suit also alleges that BRF undermined medical education. BRF parties “have not allowed residents and fellows access to Hospital data and other resources necessary to perform research,” reads the suit. It goes on to allege that residents and fellows were forced to perform clerical functions at the expense of their medical education.
“(BRF parties) have never given anything more than lip service to the education and training components of the public purpose,” the lawsuit reads. “Instead, they have wrongfully focused all of their effort on converting the hospitals into private hospitals.”
The suit asks the court to force the termination of the contract between the parties within 10 days. BRF told The Shreveport Times on Thursday that the dispute with LSU will likely be resolved in court. BRF secured the contract to operate the northern Louisiana hospitals in 2013 under a no-bid contract as part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to privatize the state’s charity hospital system. BRF leaders have repeatedly denied any mismanagement and say they have followed the contract’s terms. They have also previously said that LSU has thwarted efforts to ease the transition and remedy concerns.
—Stephanie Riegel
