A bill passed by the Legislature during the recent session creates a pilot program in East Baton Rouge Parish that would allow patients with non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries to be diverted by ambulance to urgent care clinics.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mack “Bodi” White, creates a task force to develop and implement a pilot program for ambulance transport alternatives. The bill, which was approved by both chambers of the Legislature during the regular session but has not yet been signed into law, specifies that urgent care clinics could accept such patients.
White says Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center has volunteered to participate in the pilot program and, as such, would be able to accept low-acuity ambulance patients at its 24/7 urgent care facility on Airline Highway in north Baton Rouge.
“The Lake has volunteered to be part of the pilot program at their hospital and at their urgent care facility in north Baton Rouge,” White says. “I think other people will be participants in the future.”
The legislation would go a long way towards addressing the lack of emergency care in north Baton Rouge, which has become a subject of intense concern lately. Since the closures of Earl K. Long charity hospital and Baton Rouge General’s Mid City emergency room in 2013 and 2015, respectively, north Baton Rouge residents have been without an emergency department, though many patients have been redirected to The Lake’s urgent care clinics on airline Highway and on North Foster Drive.
OLOL officials confirm the hospital is participating in the pilot program. They also say they are working with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to explore expanding services at the LSU Health Baton Rouge location on Airline Highway as a result of the pilot program, but they decline to discuss specifics.
Meanwhile, Baton Rouge legislative delegates met with Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday morning to discuss improving health care in north Baton Rouge, and came away with mixed feelings. Two lawmakers say the governor told them he remains committed to improving health care in north Baton Rouge, but there is frustration that more was not accomplished in the meeting.
“I just left a little discouraged because I felt we could have gotten the ball moving,” state Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, says.
The topic of the proposed emergency room at Champion Medical Center on Harding Boulevard came up at the meeting. State Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, says after the meeting with Edwards he got the feeling that Champion’s project, which needs roughly $6.5 million from the state for construction and operating costs until Dec. 31, 2017, will not be funded in the special legislative session after not being funded in the regular session.
“I just want an emergency room in our community,” Barrow says.
DHH deferred questions to the governor’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment by this afternoon’s deadline.
—Stephanie Riegel and Ryan Broussard
