In recognition of her life-saving efforts during Hurricane Gustav, Ruth Turman, RN, EKLMC patient safety manager, was named Honorary Mayor-President by the Metropolitan Council of East Baton Rouge at its Metropolitan Medical Response Team Day. Mike Futrell, assistant chief administrative officer for the City of Baton Rouge recognized designated regional coordinators (DRCs) and the medical director for Region 2 at the September 24 council meeting.

The healing power of art is at work in the Oncology Department of the Dr. Walter O. Moss Regional Medical Center. The department received twenty-four 10-square-inch box-style canvases for its oncology patients from the artist Tony Forrest and his wife, Martha, who gave a workshop on painting to patients as part of a project that allows each patient to work individually as well as in concert with others.

Hurricane Ike threatened Chabert Medical Center with flooding for the second time in three years, prompting officials to again push plans to build a levee to protect the hospital and surrounding neighborhoods. “For Rita, I personally saw tidal waters coming into the Chabert parking lot. Ike almost put water in our state hospital again,” said state Sen. Reggie Dupre, D-Bourg. “This is vitally important.”

LSU’s Earl K. Long Medical Center will reopen for business at its Airline Highway hospital on Friday — a month after a storm-related power failure shuttered the facility. Hospital operations will move from temporary quarters at LSU’s Perkins Road out-patient surgical center back to the north Baton Rouge site which was evacuated Sept. 4, hospital administrator Dr. Kathy Viator said Tuesday. The hospital’s emergency room opens at 7 a.m., Viator said. The move ends an odyssey that began Sept. 1 when all the Baton Rouge hospitals lost electricity as Hurricane Gustav blew through.

Dr. C. Lynn Besch, HIV division director for the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and statewide clinical lead for the LSU Health Care Services Division (HCSD) HIV Disease Management Program, received the prestigious Gabe Kruks Memorial HIV/AIDS Service Award. Dr. Ronald Wilcox, program director and principal investigator for the Delta Region AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) in New Orleans and a staff physician with the LSU HIV Outpatient Program (HOP), received the equally prestigious AIDS Education and Training Centers Award.

Earl K. Long Medical Center quickly transformed its outpatient LSU Health System Surgical Center into an inpatient facility while the EKLMC main campus receives repair for damages from Hurricane Gustav. EKLMC staff had two challenges and met both within 36 hours: the transformation of the facility from outpatient to inpatient use and passing the inspections of the Department of Health and Hospitals, the Office of Public Health, and the state fire marshall. All three gave the facility the green light for inpatient services.

The Medicine and Subspecialty Clinics at Earl K. Long Medical Center will reopen on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, on its main campus. The hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Friday. All scheduling and referral questions are to be directed to Central Scheduling at (225) 358-4853.

Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center and the Oregon Disaster Medical Assistance Team began providing outpatient care shortly after Hurricane Gustav hit Terrebonne Parish. With the arrival of Hurricane Ike, LJCMC and the DMAT suspended services for several days. LJCMC outpatient care has since resumed, and a DMAT from Florida and Georgia is again offering medical services in the Winn-Dixie parking lot on Prospect Street.