Employees at W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center and the patients they serve can finally breath a sign of relief as the hospital
enters into a partnership with Lake Charles Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Frank Opelka, LSU System executive
vice president for health care, announced Friday at a news conference
that a public/private
partnership between Moss Regional and Lake Charles Memorial
Hospital, along with their partner West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital,
will modernize and sustain health care for Southwest Louisiana
that is provided through the charity hospital.
The partnership will preserve patient services that are currently in place at Moss Regional, Opelka said. Memorial Hospital
will lease property from Moss Regional and West Cal-Cam Hospital will sublease components of Moss Regional from Memorial.
Other aspects of the partnership will
include Memorial assuming responsibility for the facility and operations
at Moss Regional
and Moss Regional will continue to serve as a charity hospital in
Southwest Louisiana for patients who are uninsured as well
as those on Medicaid.
“The hospitals involved will develop a
memorandum of understanding which will be presented to the LSU Board of
Supervisors
for their approval,” Opelka said. “After these memorandums are
approved, LSU will begin working with Lake Charles Memorial
and West Cal-Cam toward cooperative endeavor agreements that will
spell out the terms of the new relationship and how it will
preserve and enhance patient care.”
State run hospitals in Houma, New Orleans, and Lafayette have also adopted public/private partnerships to curtail funding
cuts.
Bruce Greenstein, Department of Health and Hospitals secretary, said the partnership will allow Moss Regional to avoid layoffs
and maintain current services.
“The LSU System has been on an
accelerated path to redesign health care services because of Congress’
sudden actions in July
to reduce federal medical assistance ... to the lowest level
Louisiana has had in more than 25 years,” he said. “(The) decrease
has caused us to speed up this transformation.”
Dr. Mohammed Sarwar, Moss Regional medical director, has been at the hospital for 15 years and said for the first time since
then he can “breath a sign of relief.”
“I am really thankful to everybody, this is the first time I’m able to breath a sign of relief,” he said. “Every year we go
through ‘Is Moss going to close,’ ... now we can have comfort that Moss is not closing anytime in the near future. We work
really hard, and Moss is our home. So, we are very happy.”
Congress’ reduced Louisiana’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage eliminating $126.9 million in State General Funds from
the LSU System’s budget. There was a total reduction of $329.2 million when federal funds that would have been matched are
taken into consideration, Greenstein said.
Greenstein said it has long been known that the public hospital system is outdated and unsustainable.
“Given the changing landscape of health
care, the LSU System has to change its model to survive and thrive in
this health
care marketplace,” he added. “The (funding) decrease acted as a
catalyst for the LSU System to do what they have always known
was necessary — to identify ways to run programs more efficiently
and effectively, and to transform operations to create a
sustainable health care system.”
Greenstein said the partnership gives Moss Regional the ability to withstand and depend less on future appropriations and
changes in state financing.
Larry Graham, president of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, said he and his staff are looking forward to the collaboration
with the LSU System and West Cal-Cam.
“We could not ask for better partners,”
he said. “Memorial has always been a team player when it comes to the
health care
needs of our community, and all of our decisions begin with the
question: What is the right thing to do for our community?”
“Memorial believes that preserving the
health care safety net for the working poor and uninsured served by Moss
Regional is
the right thing to do,” Graham added. “Lake Charles Memorial
Health Care System understands and welcomes this new model of
patient services, and we will do our best to work together with
our partners to ensure quality health care for our community.”
Bill Hankins, chief executive officer of West Cal-Cam Hospital, echoed Graham’s sentiments on looking forward the working
partnership.
“West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital has a
long-standing relationship with Moss Regional,” he said. “Several
physicians from our
campus in Sulphur have been working at Moss Regional for a number
of years. We have had a great relationship and we are confident
that they are going to continue to provide (health care) is very
exciting for all of us.”
House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, said with the partnership, Southwest Louisiana is taking health care “to the
next level.”
“Finally, we are moving out of the
outdated, antiquated charity system that was developed back in ... the
1930s and into the
21st century,” he said. “We are coming into a facility that has
the financial resources, that has the technology, that has
the expertise ... that has the staffing to do what we need to do,
and what we should have done many, many years ago here in
Southwest Louisiana to bring our health care and deliver health
care to the people that can least afford it ... and give them
the proper health care they need.”
Kleckley said “that’s what we have been missing here in this state.”
“We are taking our health care here in Southwest Louisiana and we are moving it to the next level,” he said. “I cannot say
how proud and how excited I am.”
Sen. Ronnie John, R-Lake Charles, said in his 13 years in the legislature it has been a concern rather Moss Regional was going
to remain open and rather the facility was going to have the funding to provide “the very basics.”
Johns commended Moss Regional Interim Administrator, Jimmy Pottorff, and his staff for being “loyal and tireless” in providing
quality health care.
“Change never comes easy,” Johns said.
“But, if we don’t change, we go backwards. The important message is Moss
Regional will
be open for business and it will hopefully in the future be able
to deliver more care than it has been able to do in the past.”
Opelka said employees at Moss Regional
will continue to work within the partnership and will be offered
opportunities to change
their job position from LSU to work under Lake Charles Memorial,
and employees in physician and clinical services will remain
LSU employees.
Graham said it’s Memorial’s intent to hire as many employees as necessary to accomplish the mission of running all services
currently at Moss Regional fully.
The transition is expected to begin in the coming months and be completed by July.