Old K-Mart shopping center selected as site for new clinic

On August 18, the LSU Board of Supervisors selected a 12.5-acre site in North Baton Rouge as its future location for a new outpatient clinic.
“The North Baton Rouge Clinic fits squarely into LSU’s plans to bring medical services closer to the people who need them,” said Donald R. Smithburg, chief executive officer of the Health Care Services Division.
According to an agreement between LSU and Florida developer Herbert G. Brown, the school will purchase the land located at Airline Highway and McClelland Drive. A 104,992-square feet building on the property — now used as a bingo hall — was appraised at $2.1 million and will be included in the sale. Both will be sold for $675,000 in cash, leaving a residual of over $1.4 million that will be given to LSU as a gift.
Construction for the clinic is slated to begin in the fall of 2006. The site was chosen over two other locations, one near Metro Airport at the Howell Place Office Park and another located at Airline Highway and Evangeline Street. The LSU Health Care Services Division hospital and clinic system serves as Louisiana’s largest health care provider.
Smithburg said the new facility would give easier access to primary care and aid in taking the crowds out of other emergency rooms around the city such as Earl K. Long Medical Center, which is located just south of the proposed site.
“Earl K. Long had almost 180,000 outpatients last year,” Smithburg said.
The new facility will offer a wide variety of services such as family practice medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and low-risk obstetrics. It will be open during regular business hours as well as evenings and weekends too.
For Southern students, the new clinic will serve as another alternative for hospital visits. “The implementation of another clinic in the area is good news,” said Bakida Cooper, a sophomore from Baton Rouge. “EKL is old and creepy and there was always a crowd waiting to be seen.”