By Anne Regan
T
he changing health care environment has been a catalyst for hospitals to redefine their roles in the community. Along with the economic boom in industry comes growth in other areas, such as health care. In response to this growth, hospitals are making expansion efforts and, in essence, creating a ripple effect.
These expansions are also creating jobs in the hospital systems. Hospitals need construction workers and staff to service the boom. Lake Charles area hospitals have already started preparing for this and have seen the impacts.
According to Bryan Bateman, CEO of Lake Area Medical Center (LAMC), “Part of any hospital administrator’s role is to plan and prepare for sustained growth. With the anticipated influx of new movers to Southwest Louisiana, we knew we were poised to experience significant growth in specific areas; for example, emergency services and surgical services. This has proven to be the case.”
Lake Charles Memorial Health Systems (LCMHS) communications manager Matt Felder states, “Patient volume has increased and is getting larger … Expansion is in response to the anticipated population growth.”
Bateman says, “Over the past few months, we have seen a higher acuity patient population utilize our emergency services. Individuals presenting with life-threatening cardiac conditions can now be quickly assessed and treated in our cardiac Cath lab — a service line that didn’t even exist at LAMC five years ago.
“Most noticeable is the rapid increase in surgical volumes — especially those patients who are candidates for robotic-assisted surgery. In the last 12 months, we’ve moved from solely offering robotic-assisted urology procedures into offering gynecology and general surgeries; into, most recently, bariatric surgeries performed robotically. Heartburn and GI procedures are also surgical specialty areas that are undergoing rapid growth.”
Christus Southwestern Louisiana president and CEO Donald Lloyd says there are three reasons growth and change in local health care are taking place now. Lloyd believes that people move here for work and end up staying. “Nobody wants to leave once they move here.”
He says health care is going through an extremely radical transformation in this financial and political era. Health care providers are focused on keeping people well and not just treating the sick. This creates an increased need and forces technology to drive innovation.
Lloyd says the last reason for the health care boom is the relationship hospital systems have with employers. St. Patrick Hospital currently has contracts with 42 of the largest major employers in the area, including refineries, aviation, city government and gaming industries. They provide health care services that range from health care checks to the operation of clinics on-site in real time. They successfully reduce the cost of healthcare to the industry and their employees while they keep people healthy.
The American Hospital Assoc. says LCMHS accounts for more than 7,500 jobs, or 8.3 percent of jobs, in Calcasieu Parish. LCMHS has had an 83-percent total outpatient volume growth since 2007. In the ER alone, the number of patients seen since 2012 has increased by 72 percent.
Memorial’s $7.2 million construction of a two-story Nelson Rd. building includes an Urgent Care Center.
In the last eight years, LCMHS has added 70 physicians. Since 2006, LCMHS has spent $166 million renovating and upgrading health care services and technology. Memorial plans to spend an additional $20 million every year for construction and equipment until 2019.
LCMHS has three big projects currently in the works. They just renovated and expanded their ICU, doubling patient capacity to a total of 34 beds. The $14.4 million expansion of the ER doubles the capacity to 36 beds and includes an eight-bed mental health triage, trauma and CT area. The $7.2-million construction of a two-story Nelson Road medical office building opening in July will include an Urgent Care Center and 15 doctors. And future plans include breaking ground on a new psychiatric hospital south of Lake Charles.
Last year, St. Patrick Hospital saw a 40-percent growth in their medical oncology practice and doubled the size of the Sulphur office.
The hospital has seen significant growth in cardiovascular business, which is up 18 percent in the last 10 months. This is due, in part, to the new state of the art protocol to diagnose cardiac issues. St. Patrick plans to add a new $2 million-dollar, 128-bed cardiac CT service to expand clinical diagnosis with a new physician native to the community.
Christus has six new physicians joining this summer due to the recruited partnership at Imperial Health. They have just broken ground on a primary health clinic and after-hours clinic to service the Moss Bluff area.
Christus plans more expansion in the next 26-34 months to include a $3.5-million-dollar investment in operative theaters for their neurosurgery department and an expansion of the Cath lab and hybrid cardiac room. They have also expanded their surgical robotics program to include total hip replacement, with total knee replacement to be added soon.
LCMHS uses the tagline “The future of health care is here,” which encompasses the idea that the staff in all health-oriented services are striving to improve the quality of health care for their patients.
When service lines expand, the need for facility expansion often follows. “Lake Area Medical Center plans to expand the number of its surgical suites and physician provider clinics over the next few months,” says Bateman. “LAMC is on an aggressive physician recruitment track; as more people move into the area, so does the need for more primary care providers. Having clinic space to house these new providers will be essential.
In a recent article, Lagniappe reported that Imperial Pointe and Christus St. Patrick Hospital had negotiated to form a partnership to develop an academic medical center campus. This was done in response to the need for primary care physicians in the state.
Lloyd says, “We are looking forward to the future, with current renovations to our ER — creating a patient-centric environment that emphasizes less traumatic space for pediatrics. It’s a really exciting time, and we enjoy partnering with the community.
“We have been here for 108 years and we are as committed as ever to serve the community and its people.”
Maintaining a close relationship with the patients, while incorporating mandates necessary to keep the entities physically and fiscally healthy, is imperative to keeping the doors open and advancing medical treatment at the same time.
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