BATON ROUGE [AP] — A Catholic-operated hospital would become LSU’s Baton Rouge teaching hospital and get $125 million in improvements under a proposal that would ultimately close the public hospital in Baton Rouge.
Officials say a memorandum of understanding with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center was signed late Wednesday, and the proposed public-private partnership could be completed by Sept. 30.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and health chief Alan Levine support the partnership.
LSU now uses Earl K. Long Hospital, which serves the area’s poor and uninsured.
Training programs and inpatient care would move to the Lake under the agreement. It would require financing an estimated $125 million in capital construction, including a medical education building, 60 new beds and expanding the trauma center.
