The onlyhospital in close proximity to Southern University may soon be far away.Louisiana State University Hospital System officials are pushing for therelocation of Earl K. Long Hospital, now on Airline Highway, to the Bluebonnetarea.
The LouisianaLegislative Black Caucus disagrees and is fighting to keep the medial facilityin the North Baton Rouge area.
In a letteraddressed to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, Black Caucus Chairman Rep.Willie Hunter, Jr. pleaded on behalf of his North Baton Rouge constituents tokeep the hospital’s new location in an area where he sees it as being the mostbeneficial to the community.
“In part themission of Earl K. Long Medical Center is to provide acute general medical,surgical, psychiatric, inpatient and ambulatory medical care for the medicallyindigent, uninsured, Medicaid and Medicare eligible, and self paying patientsfor an eight-parish area around Baton Rouge,” Hunter wrote in the letter. “Asthis is the mission of Earl K. Long, it makes sense to offer its services wherethe people whom it serves reside.”
The JointCommission on Hospital Accreditation has made the debate for the relocation ofthe hospital an urgent matter after the current facility was sitedunsatisfactory.
Deputy ChiefExecutive Officer of the Louisiana State University Hospital System, BobPlaisance is pushing for the new facility to be placed in the Bluebonnet areathat has been labeled as the “medical corridor” of Baton Rouge.
The proposedlocation suggested is between Essen Lane and Bluebonnet off Interstate 10. Thearea currently holds Baton Rouge General Medical Center-Bluebonnet and othermedical facilities.
According to theBusiness Report’s Daily Report, Plaisance feels that the Bluebonnet area is theonly viable location for a new a facility.
However, theBlack Caucus and the North Baton Rouge community disagree.
Caucus ExecutiveDirector Suchitra Satpathi said that the people of North Baton Rouge fit theneed for the hospital the most.
“It’s a viablelocation and a community of people want the hospital in that area,” Satpathisaid.
Hunteremphasized in his letter to Blanco that it would be unnecessary to placeanother hospital in the already congested area of Bluebonnet.
“I do feel itwill better service people of the community in North Baton Rouge,” said RoseCain, a sophomore nursing major from Baton Rouge. “If they move it toBluebonnet, a lot of the people they service will be more inconvenienced.”
Like Cain,Caucus members fear that if the new facility was placed in the Bluebonnet area,it would become an inconvenience to the people that utilize its services.
“There is atremendous opportunity for economic development in the North Baton Rouge area,”Hunter wrote. “Anchoring a hospital in the North Baton Rouge area will help tocontinue the steady growth that the area has begun to experience.”
Hunter also saidthat locating the hospital in north Baton Rouge could benefit SouthernUniversity’s Nursing School, which is interested in offering training programsat such a facility.
Although Blancohas yet to make a formal response to Hunter’s letter, the Caucus, according toSatpathi, will continue its fight for the community.
“We’re justlistening to what the community wants,” Satpathi said.
