Louisiana Voice

An online publication, The Lincoln Parish Journal, has done what the older, established Ruston newspaper has yet to do: publish a scathing editorial demanding that the owner and CEO of Allegiance Health Care meet with local citizens and explain what his plans are for the community’s struggling medical facilities.

North Louisiana Medical Center, former Lincoln General Hospital, was at one time a thriving 150-bed facility offering a wide array of medical care for the parish and surrounding rural communities. Today, it still has that 150-bed capacity but has a staff adequate to care for only about 10 patients.

That’s because health care professionals are abandoning NLMC and the affiliated medical clinics for employment at other facilities—in West Monroe, Monroe, and at a new facility being constructed in Ruston by Shreveport’s Willis Knighten Hospital.

NLMC, meanwhile, has suffered equipment failure (including, incredulously, patient call buttons), air conditioning failure that has put needed surgery on hold or forced patients to go elsewhere, supply shortages and the aforementioned exodus of medical professionals.

More recently, the hospital was the subject of a critical report stemming from an inspection by Louisiana Department of Hospital officials which cited a long list of deficiencies and giving the hospital a deadline for making corrections.

Meanwhile, the Lincoln Parish Police Jury just this week approved the creation of a hospital service district to establish “a permanent public entity dedicated to protesting, strengthening and advancing healthcare services to parish residents,” according The Ruston Daily Leader.

Otherwise, The Leader has been somewhat muted in seeking definitive answers from Allegiance’s Rock Bordelon who owns a string of medical facilities throughout the state, mostly in north Louisiana.

No so the upstart Lincoln Parish Journal today published an EDITORIAL under the headline, “Mr. Bordelon, Lincoln Parish Deserves Answers.”

The editorial was at the same time, emphatic in what it was not.

“It is not an attack on the physicians, nurses, therapists, technicians, office personnel or countless other employees who continue to care for patients every day,” many of whom are working “under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

“This is a leadership issue at the highest level.

“When someone owns the primary hospital and largest physician group in a community, responsibility ultimately rests with that person. Ownership is about more than assets and balance sheets. It carries a responsibility o the people whose lives depend on those institutions.”

“That responsibility belongs to Rock Bordelon.

“Mr. Bordelon, Lincoln Parish residents deserves (sic) to hear directly from you.

“Not through consultants.

“Not through attorneys.

“Not through prepared statements.

“Not through social media comments.

“Directly from you.”

The editorial more or less demanded (not asked) that Bordelon hold a meeting directly with parish residents to lay out his plans for the hospital and related medical care entities.

“The people of Lincoln Parish deserve answers,” it said. “They deserve to know why so many physicians, nurses and employees have left over the past year. They deserve to know what is being done to recruit and retain quality medical professionals. They deserve to know how the deficiencies identified by state inspectors are being addressed. They deserve to know how you intend to restore confidence in these institutions and ensure they provide the level of care this community expects.”

The editorial was signed by publishers Kyle and Judith Roberts and columnist Malcolm Butler.