When Dr. Cris Mandry of Baton Rouge leaves in the next week for his third National Guard tour in Afghanistan, he won’t be packing a stethoscope. Although his primary job is as director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the LSU Earl K. Long Medical Center, Mandry’s military role is as a lieutenant colonel in Special Forces. If that seems remarkable, consider this: Mandry, 57, also is a member of the New Orleans Police Department SWAT team and was one of the first officers rescuing flood-trapped residents following Hurricane Katrina. Going to the front lines in the global conflict with Islamic terror groups is the latest chapter in an extremely active life.

Dr. James A. Birke, PT, Ph.D. , was honored with the Roger Pecoraro Lectureship from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) at the ADA’s 69th Scientific Sessions, the world’s largest diabetes meeting, in New Orleans, La.  Clinical researchers are selected for this award based on their outstanding contributions to the knowledge and treatment of the diabetic foot.

The Louisiana State Nurses Association (LSNA), District IV, presented professional achievement awards to five members of the University Medical Center nursing staff during the district’s annual Acadiana Celebrates Nursing program. The Louisiana State Nurses Association has 13 districts. District IV includes the parishes of Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, Vermilion, Acadia, Evangeline, and Iberia.

All seven HCSD hospitals received 2008 Louisiana Hospital Quality Awards from the Louisiana Health Care Review (LHCR). Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center, Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, and University Medical Center received Gold Level awards. Only 26 hospitals in Louisiana received the gold level award.

The Louisiana Health Care Review (LHCR) presented to Dr. Theryll Johnson, with the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center Ambulatory Care Clinic Family Practice, the 2008 Platinum Level Physician Quality Award, and to Dr. Mohammed S. Sarwar, with the W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center Diabetes Clinic, the 2008 Silver Level Louisiana Physician Quality Award for providing and improving the quality of diabetes health care for patients.

Louisiana State University and Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center today agreed to a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that creates a public-private collaboration between the two organizations and outlines relocation of certain Baton Rouge based Graduate Medical Education programs to Our Lady of the Lake’s campus.

Please see attached letter from the Department of Civil Service approving the withholding of merit increases for Fiscal Year 2009/2010 as a layoff avoidance measure. No merit increases will be given to HCSD employees, either classified or unclassified during FY 09/10.

The Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center (LKRMC) Outpatient Clinic has received Level III recognition status as a Physician Practice Connections®—Patient Centered Medical Home™ (PPC-PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Only 9 practices in Louisiana and only 58 in the nation have achieved Level III.

The University Medical Center (UMC) Foundation presented its first annual awards for exemplary service to three UMC staff members at its Third Annual Jazz Brunch at La Carte.

Central to LSU's proposed not-for-profit, private-style governance plan for the new Academic Medical Center in New Orleans is minimizing politics and governmental inefficiency. The kind of fiscal discipline recommended by the nationally recognized consultants assures the new hospital will be "well positioned to meet the health care needs of the community as it trains health care professionals of the future." LSU is being proactive in trying to insure that the business plan for the new hospital works.

Governor Bobby Jindal will be the keynote speaker at the opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new LSU Health System North Baton Rouge Clinic, 5439 Airline Highway, Thursday, June 4, at 10:00 a.m. The clinic will provide quality comprehensive adult preventive care in a state-of-the-art facility, offering the best in primary care, cancer services, and women’s health.

About 45 employees of Dr. W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center participating in the Relay for Life collected over $3600.00 in donations, directly benefiting the American Cancer Society. All locally raised funds will remain in the community. Used for research, the funding also supports efforts to manage and cure cancer. 

University Medical Center in Lafayette has been named the 2009 Hospital of the Year for Respiratory Care for hospitals with less than 200 beds by the Louisiana Society for Respiratory Care (LSRC). The LSRC recognized University Medical Center for having highly qualified respiratory therapists (RTs) who possess high levels of competence and professionalism. UMC RTs work closely with the physicians to extend great care through accurate diagnosis and effective, individualized treatment. UMC RTs, physicians, and nurses work together as a team to bring outstanding care to the patients’ bedside for a safe and quick recovery. This team is committed to improving the respiratory status of all patients, one breath at a time.

The LSU Bogalusa Medical Center (BMC) Memphis Street Outpatient Clinic has received Level 1 recognition status as a Physician Practice Connections—Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The clinic has met rigorous NCQA requirements to receive this recognition. This point of care provides ongoing preventive and early intervention health care to patients and coordinates specialized care with the LSU Bogalusa Medical Center when patients require it.

The LSU Bogalusa Medical Center (LSU BMC) Respiratory Therapy Department has earned Quality Respiratory Care Recognition (QRCR) from the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC). The QRCR designation ensures quality respiratory care in a hospital and helps patients and families make informed decisions about the quality of the respiratory care services available at the institution of their choice.

The LSU Heath System Health Care Services Division (HCSD) has been actively planning for at least two years within its system of seven hospitals and clinics and with its state and federal partners for a pandemic flu outbreak and has maintained stockpiles of necessary medical supplies.  Additionally, LSU is currently engaging in the following activities:

A Bogalusa doctor has been named the 2008 Citizen of the Year for the eastern side of Washington Parish. Dr. Whit Gallaspy, the head doctor at the OB/GYN unit at LSU Bogalusa Medical Center, was voted last year’s most outstanding citizen on Monday during a meeting at The Daily News office. He is the 50th person to receive the award, which is chosen through a vote of previous honorees. Nominees for the award are chosen by the public.

Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally. The current U.S. case count is provided below. An investigation and response effort surrounding the outbreak of swine flu is ongoing. CDC is working very closely with officials in states where human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) have been identified, as well as with health officials in Mexico, Canada and the World Health Organization. This includes deploying staff domestically and internationally to provide guidance and technical support.

Gov. Bobby Jindal held a press conference Sunday to discuss the state’s action to get ahead of the swine outbreak and stress the importance of citizens taking steps to prevent against illness. Jindal stressed that there are currently no confirmed cases of swine flu in Louisiana at this time. The swine outbreak has sickened 20 people in the U.S. and hundreds more in Mexico, and it is being closely monitored by state and federal agencies including the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

LAFAYETTE — The University Medical Center (UMC) Respiratory Therapy Department has earned Quality Respiratory Care Recognition (QRCR) from the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC). The QRCR designation ensures quality respiratory care in a hospital and helps patients and families make informed decisions about the quality of the respiratory care services available at the institution of their choice. 

HOUMA — Amerinet, a leading health care group purchasing organization, presented to Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center (LJCMC) in Houma, La., the first-ever Amerinet Healthcare Achievement Award. The award is in recognition of Amerinet member excellence, honoring those institutions that truly excel in reducing health care costs and improving health care quality.

HOUMA — Patricia Chiquet wanted to do some volunteer work and find a way to make people smile. Her husband, Carey Chiquet, had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Chiquet, who had no children of her own but was raised in a family of nine brothers and sisters, wanted to give back this Easter season. “With my husband being sick, it’s not so happy. So I wanted to find a way of making people happy,” said Chiquet, who lives in Napoleonville. So the 43-year-old veteran nurse at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma went online, bought an Easter bunny suit and started booking appearances. “I just wanted to get a bunny outfit,” Chiquet said. “It’s all been good. The responses of people have been amazing. I never thought a $99 bunny suit would make so many people smile.”

Gov. Bobby Jindal gave private assurances to New Orleans City Council members that he still backs the proposal to build a $1.2 billion state teaching hospital in lower Mid-City, despite a growing collection of individuals and organizations asking both the council and the governor to reassess the plans.

The LSU Health System is launching a public information campaign to promote the availability of LSU community clinics and the HIV Outpatient Clinic to New Orleans area residents. The campaign, entitled “Quality Health Care Close to Home,” will include radio and television spots, public transit advertisements, and direct-mail pieces and will feature a central phone number for information on the clinics: 1-877-LSU-4YOU (1-877-578-4968).

Baton Rouge sufferers from arthritis are fortunate to have been the beneficiaries of 40 years of harmonious cooperation among the physicians of EKLMC, LSU Rheumatology, and the rheumatologists of Baton Rouge Clinic.

The desire of the HCSD to provide the highest quality leadership has resulted in four more HCSD staff graduating from the Advisory Board Academy Fellowship. They are Beverly Sheridan, BMC education, safety and facility services director (lower left); Angela Gooden, HQ executive projects coordinator; Nathan Daigrepont, HQ director of clinical projects (upper left); and Glenn Craig, UMC assistant hospital administrator.

LSU will go to the state Legislature next month for the $120 million in construction funding needed if a deal is struck for Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center to become LSU’s teaching hospital. LSU System Vice President for Health Care Fred Cerise said LSU will ultimately need legislative approval of the plan under which LSU would close its Earl K. Long Medical Center. The antiquated hospital on Airline Highway serves the area’s poor and uninsured.

Attorneys for the Louisiana Office of Facility Planning and Control (FP&C) and LSU assert the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ignored its own rules and failed to fairly assess the cost of repairing hurricane damage at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. In an appeal of a proposed Project Worksheet payment for Charity, FP&C and LSU, citing eight errors, contend FEMA lacked “a reasonable factual basis” for rejecting the state’s claim for just under $492 million to replace the 70-year-old, teaching and research hospital.

Just a few years ago, Amber Chalee would probably have had her kidney transplant in New Orleans. That was where the closest hospital with a kidney transplant program. Advertisement But instead, she received her mother's kidney Dec. 10 at the University Medical Center, right here in Lafayette. First diagnosed with kidney failure in 2000, Chalee ran into trouble in 2003, during her 27th week of pregnancy, when her kidneys stopped working. After an emergency Caesarean section, Chalee began dialysis and two years later, was well enough to stop the treatments, only to have her condition worsen again last year. "We opted for the transplant, instead of going back on dialysis," she said. Her kidney specialist, Dr. Andy Blalock suggested that she have the surgery done at UMC.

Gail Gibson, RN, MN, CPM, received the highest award the American Academy of Certified Public Managers (AACPM) presents to a fellow of the academy, the 2008 Henning Award, for exemplifying the AACPM vision of world-class leadership and public sector management during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  She is the director of maternal and child and medical surgical services for the Interim LSU Public Hospital. 

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she plans to call state and federal officials together in Washington, D.C., soon to try to settle a three-year dispute about how much FEMA owes Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina damage to Charity Hospital. The eventual outcome -- state and federal officials remain almost $350 million apart -- is a key piece of the financing puzzle for a proposed $1.2 billion academic medical complex in lower Mid-City to replace University Hospital and the shuttered Charity building. Napolitano, who spent parts of two days touring the New Orleans area, did not say when she would convene a meeting or exactly who would be involved. Advertisement Separately, a top Louisiana State University official said Friday that the school's lawyers and the state Office of Facilities, Planning and Control are putting the final touches on an appeal of the $150 million that the Bush administration offered during its final weeks in office. That was up from FEMA's original $23 million.

Here’s the deal. The new Louisiana State University teaching/charity/trauma/learning center in downtown New Orleans is going to be at the lower end of Mid-City between Tulane Avenue and Canal Boulevard next to the equally new Veterans Administration hospital. Period, end of story. That is unless we don’t get close to $500 million from FEMA. All LSU needs is $492 million it wants from FEMA, not to complete the project, but to start it. So far FEMA’s offer is somewhere just short of $150 million. The $350 million gap is based on a FEMA assessment of the old Charity building and how much damage was sustained during Hurricane Katrina. When finished, the entire complex will cost somewhere close to $800 million, plus or minus $100 million. The FEMA money is critical. LSU thinks the Charity building is completely damaged and FEMA thinks not - at least for now.

The LSU Health Care Services Division (HCSD) awarded staff of University Medical Center (UMC) multiple awards for quality health care at the 12 th annual Health Care Effectiveness Forum, entitled “Medical Homes and Academic Health Systems: Fostering Excellence in Health Outcomes in the LSU System."

Connie Liuzza, director of nursing at Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center; Dr. Dwayne Steele, director of pharmacy services, Interim LSU Public Hosital; Keith Verret, IT analyst, HCSD; Dr. Danny Jackson, HCSD pharmacy director; and Carolyn Kelly, assistant nursing director at Earl K. Long Medical Center, graduated from the prestigious Advisory Board Academy Fellowship.

LSU clinics throughout New Orleans have received recognition status as Physician Practice Connections—Patient Centered Medical Homes (PPC-PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), heralding a superior quality of health care at the clinics

The LSU Health Care Services Division (HCSD) has appointed Kathy Viator, DNS, RN, hospital administrator for Earl K. Long Medical Center (EKLMC) in Baton Rouge, La. “Dr. Viator has both the clinical and executive experience for leading the Earl K. Long Medical Center,” said Dr. Michael K. Butler, HCSD CEO.  “She has served in an exemplary fashion as the medical center has expanded to meet demands for its services and as it has responded in times of emergency, such as the arrival and destruction of Hurricane Gustav.” Dr. Viator, who has served as EKLMC acting hospital administrator since March 2007, has 30 years of experience in hospital management and health care.

After months of relatively quiet planning for a new academic medical complex in New Orleans, the temperature is rising between Louisiana State University System officials and opponents of the school's proposed site in lower Mid-City. LSU leaders say they are reacting to what they characterize as misinformation and cheap shots by preservationists and other opponents of the proposed complex...

The spirited and emotional conversation over a new LSU medical center in New Orleans often sidesteps the critical importance of academic medicine to greater New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Controversy almost always surrounds such significant projects, especially those in urban settings with complex challenges of finance, land use and organization. However, widespread support from the medical, business a nd political leadership of the city and state, including the governor, reflects the positive response to building LSU's Academic Medical Center adjacent to the Veterans Affairs hospital. Do New Orleans and Louisiana need the LSU Academic Medical Center built in concert with the VA hospital? I strongly believe the answer is yes.

Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center (LJCMC), in Houma, La., has received recognition status as a Physician Practice Connections—Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), heralding a superior quality of health care at LJCMC. “This recognition is another example of the superior health care that LSU provides to Louisiana citizens,” said Dr. Fred Cerise, LSU System Vice President for Health Affairs and Medical Education. ”

Earl K. Long Medical Center (EKLMC) and University Medical Center (UMC) have each received the 2009 Outstanding Patient Experience Award from HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, for ranking in the top 15 percent nationally for exemplary service to patients. In fact, both far exceeded the top 15 percent. The percentile ranking for EKLMC was 3.32 and for UMC 3.71, placing both among the top four percent in the nation.

The twelfth annual LSU Health Care Services Division (HCSD) Health Care Effectiveness Forum, entitled “Medical Homes and Academic Health Systems: Fostering Excellence in Health Outcomes in the LSU Health System,” will be Tuesday, January 13, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Baton Rouge Marriott, 5500 Hilton Avenue, Baton Rouge, La. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Atul Grover, who is assistant vice president and director of governmental relations of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

For the second time in six months, the Interim LSU Public Hospital is going through high-level management turnover, with the hospital now being run by a top Louisiana State University system administrator and an Atlanta consultant. The moves come as the state continues its plans for a new teaching hospital in New Orleans and as LSU promises a search for a permanent chief executive for the facility that emerged after Hurricane Katrina as a combined replacement for Charity and University hospitals. Dr. Roxane Townsend, assistant vice president of the LSU system's medical division, has replaced Dr. Cathi Fontenot as interim chief executive officer. Fontenot had the job since July, when LSU officials forced out Dr. Dwayne Thomas, who led LSU's two hospitals before Katrina and helped launch the interim hospital after the storm.

Infection Control Today, a health-care journal for infectious disease professionals named Dr. Walter Campbell, Jr., to Who’s Who in Infection Prevention for 2008. Dr. Campbell is one of only eighteen practitioners selected for this award from nationwide nominations submitted by their infection control peers. Dr. Campbell directs the Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center (LKRMC) Infection Control program, where he primarily treats patients with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C.

Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center (LKRMC) is pleased to announce that three LSU cardiologists are joining the LKRMC staff beginning January 1, 2009. Drs. Frederick Helmcke, Neeraj Jaim, and Vijayendra Jaligam have extensive clinical, teaching, and research experience at LSU and adhere to the same disease management outcome goals as LKRMC since LKRMC is part of the LSU Health System.

Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center (LKRMC) is now a tobacco and smoke-free campus as of January 1, 2009. Through the Louisiana Rural Health Association’s Operation Against Smoking/Inhaling Secondhand Smoke (OASIS) initiative, which is designed to help adhere to the hospital’s commitment to become tobacco and smoke-free, LKRMC will be making every effort to support patients, families and staff with the implementation of this new policy.