Forming a partnership: Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center has entered into a “majority investment partnership” with Southern Surgical Hospital in Slidell. OLOL, which announced the deal today, says the investment adds to its increasing access to patient care in the southeast region of the state. The new hospital partnership joins Our Lady of the Lake Surgery-Ponchartrain and Lake Urgent Care-Northshore, both located in Covington, and Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa. Southern Surgical Hospital in Slidell offers inpatient and outpatient surgeries for patients in southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi.
New role: John Perry Jr., a founding member of Baton Rouge-based law firm Perry, Balhoff, Mengis & Burns, will take on the completion of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill case, The Courier reports. He specializes in mediation and arbitration. Perry, a graduate of the LSU law center and a former Nicholls State University basketball player, will serve as Grand Master of the case. “It’s going to be an interesting assignment because the objective is to fairly apportion the money that is available among the attorneys that participated,” Perry tells the newspaper. Read the full story.
Looking ahead: With the budget balanced at least temporarily, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has turned more attention to state infrastructure, planning it to be a key initiative for next year’s legislative session, The Associated Press reports. In June, the Democratic governor created an 18-member study group to develop ideas for tackling Louisiana’s more than $12 billion road and bridge improvement backlog. Its recommendations are due by Jan. 1. Edwards says he wants the study group to consider gas tax hikes, toll roads and public/private partnerships as it devises recommendations to raise more money for roadwork. He’s also planning to steer more dollars from the state’s construction budget to transportation projects, plans that still need final approval.
