By Jamie Segura
The seven-hospital LSU Health System, that serves the most vulnerable, needy populations in the southern part of Louisiana, will soon be just a shell of a health system. Thursday, the Joint Health and Welfare Committee of the Louisiana Legislature learned that some 1500 healthcare workers in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Houma, Independence, Bogalusa and Lake Charles will soon lose their jobs. The inpatient bed capacities will dramatically decrease at every facility. All of these cuts are being made to meet a $152 million budget reduction.
Several legislators, including Sen. Ben Nevers (D-Bogalusa), openly expressed their frustration and anger during the four-hour hearing.
Frank Opelka, LSU’s Executive Vice President for Health Care and Medical Education Redesign, outlined a plan that calls for only 10 inpatient beds at Lake Charles, Independence and Lafayette. Earl K. Long in Baton Rouge will be reduced to 10 inpatient beds and between three and five additional beds designated for hospitalization of Department of Corrections’ inmates. In New Orleans, the Interim LSU Hospital (known to most in New Orleans as University Hospital) will go from 201 inpatient beds down to 155 beds (90 med-surg beds, 36 ICU beds and 29 psyche beds). The cuts in New Orleans represent more than $49 million and over 423 positions.
Chabert Medical Center in Houma will maintain 58 beds. LSU Bogalusa will keep 28 of its beds.
Additionally, many clinics affiliated with the hospitals will be closed as well.
At the outset of the meeting, Senate President John Alario, Westwego, acknowledged the lack of input by lawmakers into the process.
“The worst thing we can do in a democracy is to keep secrets,” Alario stated at the beginning of the meeting. House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, Lake Charles, agreed with Alario.
Opelka told the lawmakers that the problems being faced by the LSU hospitals are “local problems requiring local solutions.” LSU is counting on private partnerships in each of the affected communities to pick up the care of those patients currently using the LSU hospitals and clinics.
However, Opelka could name only one such partnership currently in the works, Earl K. Long and Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge.
The LSU hospitals are also the location of Graduate Medical Education (GME) and residencies of doctors in training. While that is a significant concern, most lawmakers were more interested in healthcare services for their constituents.
Once Opelka finished his presentation, the same given earlier in the day to the LSU Board of Supervisors, legislators were quick with questions and expressed frustration at the decision-making process. Several complained that they were not kept informed of what the plans might involve for cuts in their districts and that learning about these cuts in the newspaper or television news was unacceptable.
Leading the charge was Rep. Regina Barrow, Baton Rouge, who sought specifics on the move of the OB/GYN Clinic of Earl K. Long to Woman’s Hospital.
“When was the decision made?” she asked Opelka. “No one told me or the senator from the area. I had to read about it in the paper the next day.”
Opelka could not provide specifics. Barrow’s complaint about lack of inclusion and hearing about cuts and downsizing in the news media was echoed by several lawmakers including Reps. Kenny Cox, Natchitoches, and Katrina Jackson, Monroe.
“What about prison care?” Barrow continued. She also asked about the build out of a new urgent care facility in Baton Rouge.
In the four hour committee meeting, member after member asked specific questions about facilities located in their districts. Opelka bluntly told the gathering that patient access to care will likely decrease as a result of the reduction in funding.
Though the three LSU facilities in the northern part of the state, LSUMC in Shreveport, E.A. Conway in Monroe and Huey P. Long in Alexandria, are not included the same LSU system, lawmakers from those areas expressed similar concerns about what was coming their way.
Jackson, who served in a legislative staff position prior to being elected to the Legislature, expressed concern about “public-private partnerships.”
“I get worried when I hear public/private partnerships…we have no data that these private/public partnerships will be better,” she told Opelka. “This train is moving pretty fast.”
Perhaps the most passionate exchange came during comments and questions by Senator Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa. Nevers told the panel that he and his family use the LSU facility in Bogalusa as do most of the residents of that area. He heaped praises on the staff and quality of care at LSU Bogalusa.
With emotions visible on his face and in his voice Nevers questioned Opelka on the timeline for these cuts.
“When will these cuts take place? Next week?” he asked. “Where will healthcare services be received?” Opelka offered no response.
Nevers pressed on, “who dies, who lives, who suffers, who doesn’t suffer? What about the economy in these areas?”
Nevers added that patients will “go to the closest emergency room you can find…know what that’s gonna cost us? It’s gonna cost us more. I cannot be satisfied without knowing if my people can receive care.”
Those comments pretty much summed up the feelings of both Representatives and Senators on the committee and the almost 100 people in the audience.
When questioned about the future and if there could be more cuts coming in the spring leading into the next fiscal year Opelka acknowledged that possibility. Some legislators openly commented on the predictability of closure of some if not all of the LSU hospitals.
The cuts were approved the LSU Board of Supervisors earlier in the day. Some of the cuts could be seen as early as next week while others will be made by the end of the year.
