Stephen Wright explains how his acute care hospital is expanding to address the needs of its growing community.

Central Louisiana has seen significant population and economic growth since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita came through. As individuals from the greater New Orleans area started moving north, a number of manufacturing plants followed suit, as was planned prior to the hurricanes.

Stephen Wright, CEO

“Our planning was a result of an aging plant and our increasing patient volumes,” said Wright. “The economic growth in the region only strengthened our resolve.”

Back to basics
In 2000, Christus St. Frances Cabrini’s administration began a campus development project that included the replacement of its power plant, renovation of a number of inpatient rooms, expansion of the ED and some med/surge rooms, and the construction of a new ICU.

The first step in the process was the replacement of the existing power plant, the location of core services such as the hospital’s chilled water and oxygen systems, to support the expansion. The $10 million investment enhanced the support services for the facility and made room for new facilities.

After replacing the power plant and remodeling two of the med/surg floors, the entire project was put on hold. The administration was no longer sure the rest of the strategy was appropriate. As a result, the strategic planning process was revised. “We scrapped the next stages of the 2000 plans and decided the construction of a new ED, with a new front-door entrance, and a new women and children’s hospital was the most appropriate direction to go in,” said Wright.

The expanded ED will have double the amount of bed capacity and will include a six-bed holding area to address patient delays due to the current ED being at full capacity. Areas traditionally used for admitting will now serve a dual purpose. If patients can’t immediately go to a treatment room, they will be triaged and quickly admitted so testing can begin almost immediately.

“We also added paramedics to the staffing compliment in the ED,” said Wright. “They serve as a key part in the triage process because they have expert assessment skills. We’ve added six so far and will continue to add more as we expand.”

Head of the household
Two things influenced the decision to add a women and children’s hospital to the 241-bed facility. First, as Wright looked at what made the most sense in terms of service relocation, women and children’s fit because the comprehensive set of services could be placed together in one facility. Second, statistics show the female head of the household makes roughly 80% of the healthcare decisions in a family.

“We thought of our own families and the fact that most men do not access healthcare services at a young age,” Wright explained. “Women do, mostly for childbearing reasons. Often, the positive experiences they have at that point and the proximity of the facility being close to where they reside are big drivers in deciding where to take their children in emergencies or where they choose their primary care physician.”

The women and children’s hospital will have a dedicated women’s clinic; a specialty clinic for pediatric services, including pediatric cardiology, pulmonology, perinatology, and surgery; and an LDRP (labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum) wing—a 27-room area that will include both anti-partum, delivery, and C-section rooms, as well as a nursery.

“We already have a NICU that’s been in operation for more than 25 years,” said Wright. “The NICU will also be a part of those services, in addition to a full compliment of women’s gynecological beds and pediatric beds for med/surg services.”

The fourth story of the building will house medical office space for the hospital’s obstetricians and pediatricians.

“We call that area soft space,” he said. “It’s built so in the future we can move those physicians out and the space will be ready for additional med/surg rooms.”

Although no additional staffing changes will be required for the 15-bed NICU, the administration is working with nursing schools at local colleges to recruit juniors and seniors for the new women and children’s facility and ED, set to open in mid-2009.

The hospital is currently working on extending its research in orthopedics and plans to open a human performance lab in 2008 to answer questions related to one of the nation’s fastest growing healthcare concerns—orthopedics. “A group of physicians is building a new medical office building complex on a property adjacent to ours, and they’ll be providing the space for the human performance lab as a part of their contribution to our foundation,” said Wright. “All of our expansions are preparing us to handle the growth and address the future of our community.”