BATON ROUGE (AP) — Employees of the LSU-run
hospital system are quitting in higher numbers than expected as the
Jindal administration
and university leaders seek to privatize its operations, the
leader of the health care system said Friday.
Frank Opelka, LSU vice president for health affairs and medical education redesign, said the nonprofit companies taking over
operations of many of the university's hospitals need the employees to stay.
"This is a major challenge," Opelka told the LSU Board of Supervisors.
The LSU Health Care Services Division and the state health department are pressing to wrap up the privatization agreements
for four south Louisiana hospitals quickly to stabilize the work force, he said.
According to data presented by Opelka, the Health Care Services Division had nearly 6,800 employees at its seven hospitals
in July 2011. That dropped to less than 6,000 a year later and to 5,540 by December.
Opelka acknowledged that uncertainty about
hospital management and the financial situations of the facilities has
prompted
some workers to look elsewhere for jobs, but he said he believes
the departures will level off when final privatization agreements
are signed.
The shrinking staff levels are cutting hospital costs, but also mean fewer services are being provided to patients, he said.
Employees of the university-run hospitals and affiliated clinics set for privatization will face layoffs and then have to
reapply for their jobs with the new managers if they want to keep their positions.
After Louisiana's Medicaid financing was cut
by Congress, Gov. Bobby Jindal stripped more than $300 million in state
and federal
funding from the LSU system and pushed to move away from
university-run hospitals. They provide safety net care to the poor
and the bulk of graduate medical education in Louisiana.
Jindal administration leaders and the
governor's appointees on the LSU Board of Supervisors say the charity
hospital model
is outdated and costly. They say the privatization plans will
shrink state costs, while maintaining health services and graduate
medical education programs.
Critics say the shift could damage the state's safety net and could leave some patients without adequate access to health
care.
Preliminary privatization agreements have
been reached for university hospitals in Lafayette, Houma, New Orleans
and Lake
Charles. Under the latest agreement, the board voted Friday to
turn over management of LSU's W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center
to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital.
No details have yet been provided about the terms of any of the lease arrangements.
Meanwhile, Baton Rouge hospital operations are shifting to a private facility in April, and the public hospital will be closed,
under plans that were accelerated Friday by the LSU board.
Rep. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, said she worried university leaders were moving too quickly on the Baton Rouge hospital
switchover because of budget problems, without having plans to address identified gaps in patient care.
"I'm afraid that what we're doing now is in such a haste that we're not doing it right," Barrow said.
The Jindal administration also is seeking private managers for several other university-run hospitals, including three in
north Louisiana operated separately from the Health Care Services Division.