Multimillion-dollar cuts to the LSU System will have no immediate effect on W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center, according to
a hospital official.
Although the LSU governing board backed a plan to steepen cuts to $152 million for the university-run system Thursday, Jimmy
Pottorff, interim administrator, said the cuts from this round aren’t being handed down to Moss.
Pottorff said that because Moss
Regional, Lallie A. Kemp Regional Medical Center in Independence, and
Bogalusa Medical Center
took the brunt of the last cuts none is being affected by the
latest round “as of now.” But, he said, the possibility remains
for them to receive additional cuts in the future.
The system in July stripped Moss Regional of nearly $11 million, which the facility absorbed through scaling back to 10 beds,
laying off 11 employees, and through the attrition of services, including eliminating the dietary program for employees.
Pottorff said “40-something” positions were eliminated as a result of the cuts, but that “several” of them were vacant.
The $11 million in cuts included more
than $5.1 million for inpatient services and a $1.9 million reduction in
clinical operations.
Inpatient services and ICU care were also reduced.
The $152 million cut will be spread across the seven south Louisiana hospitals, but the $10.8 million and 64 positions listed
for Moss Regional are the cuts the facility already faces.
“The other hospitals in the system are now facing cuts,” he said. “It’s kind of like we’re going to be the model for them.”
Hospitals that are being hit with cuts are Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge, Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma,
University Medical Center in Lafayette, and Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans, which will take the biggest slash
with more than a $49 million cut.
“Cuts at these other hospital’s will
still affect Moss, though, because we transfer to other hospitals and if
they have less
inpatients, then their ER is going to be full,” Pottorff said. “We
won’t be able to transfer like we used to, and that will
affect everyone statewide.”