Baton Rouge — Hospitals throughout Louisiana, in collaboration with the Louisiana Hospital Association (LHA) and the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency (LOPA), achieved the Donate Life Louisiana Hospital Campaign’s second benchmark to increase the Donate Life Louisiana Registry to 200,000 - five months ahead of schedule. The hospital campaign reached its initial goal of increasing the registry by 10 percent, or 160,000 new registrants, in 2009.

 

Sixty-nine hospitals are currently participating in the Donate Life Louisiana Hospital Campaign. Nine of the participating hospitals were awarded for their exceptional contributions to the success of the campaign earlier this month at LHA’s annual leadership symposium. The hospitals recognized were: Bunkie General Hospital, CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital (Alexandria), Lafayette General Medical Center, Ochsner Health System (New Orleans and Baton Rouge), Opelousas General Health System, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (Baton Rouge), Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center (Lafayette), Terrebonne General Medical Center (Houma) and Women and Children’s Hospital (Lake Charles). 

 

THIBODAUX – Nicholls State University and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center have teamed to establish “Living Well” – a spring 2010 special topics course in the Department of Allied Health Sciences that is designed to promote physical fitness, weight control and other healthy lifestyle choices. The goal is to promote behavior among college-age students that will reduce the likelihood of obesity-related diseases later in life.

 

“Several months ago, we approached Nicholls about sponsoring this special course and received a positive response,” Greg Stock, CEO of Thibodaux Regional, said. “We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with Nicholls to address an important community health issue. Thibodaux Regional provides surgical weight loss intervention, including gastric banding, gastric bypass and gastric sleeve surgery, but we wanted to become more involved and expand our reach in prevention.”

 

Students who live in Nicholls residence halls can enroll in the spring 2010 pilot course, taught by a multidisciplinary team from various academic departments. In addition to receiving standard classroom instruction – as well as academic credit following successful completion of the course – students will participate in baseline, midpoint and final wellness assessments and engage in a variety of physical activities.

 

Dr. Michele Caruso, program faculty member, grant co-investigator and dean of student services, said lifestyle coaching will be an integral part of the new program.

 

Baton Rouge — Our Lady of the Lake College has been named to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

 

Institutions are chosen for recognition based on a series of selection factors including the scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses. Go to www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll for a full list of Honor Roll recipients.

 

The College encourages service in two ways, campus-wide community service, and service-learning classroom initiatives. The College’s “Make it a Day On ― Not a Day Off ― Day of Service” on Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday was a good example of a campus-wide project. During this day of service, individuals from across campus joined together to participate in one of five service opportunities. One project involved time at Baton Rouge’s Girls Hope home where College students wrote a personal letter to each of the residents of the home and sat down with the girls to answer questions about college and life. At the end of the day, one OLOL College student commented, “It would have been a lot easier for me to stay home and study today, but I will never forget the look in that young girl’s eye when she read our letters and talked to us about her hopes of being a college graduate someday.”

 

BATON ROUGE – Tulane University School of Medicine and Baton Rouge General Medical Center have entered into an affiliation agreement to create a satellite training campus in Baton Rouge.

 

Starting in May, a select group of 10 Tulane medical students will spend their third and fourth-year clinical rotations in Baton Rouge General’s Mid City hospital, serving required clerkships in internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, family medicine, neurology, psychiatry and other departments. Experienced Baton Rouge General physicians will serve as teachers, mentors and role models at the new campus.

 

The program, called the Baton Rouge LEAD (Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Discovery) Academy, marks the first time in the medical school’s 175-year history that it will open a training campus outside of the New Orleans area.

 

The LEAD program is innovative in several ways. First, it will focus on longitudinal care, giving students the unique opportunity to follow and work with the same panel of patients within an assigned doctor’s clinic for at least a year. The experience allows students to participate in the continuum of care for their patients for much longer than typical clinical rotations, which last up to eight weeks.

 

Secondly, it will emphasize healthcare policy and leadership. In their fourth year, students will be able to participate in rotations in health care policy and operations with various state agencies and health care organizations located in the state’s capital city. These rotations may include internships within the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals. There will also be opportunities for interdisciplinary education and training, as the Baton Rouge General nursing program and students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe College of Pharmacy are also on-site.

 

Dr. Floyd “Flip” Roberts, Baton Rouge General chief medical officer, will serve as regional dean for Tulane students in Baton Rouge. The program will start with 10 students and will enroll an additional 20 during its second year. Plans call for it to grow to 160 students during the next several years.

 

Baton Rouge General Medical Center is a full-service, community hospital providing high quality cardiology, oncology, medical, emergency and surgical services for adult and pediatric patients in the greater Baton Rouge area.

 

Baton Rouge — Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (OLOL) was recently named the Hospital of the Year by the Louisiana State Nurses Association. The hospital received a Nightingale Award with the hospital of the year distinction and several nurses from OLOL were individually recognized during the annual Louisiana Awards Gala for Nursing and Healthcare. The Nightingale awards recognize quality service in the nursing and healthcare industry and recognize those individuals who have made a special effort to excel in the healthcare industry.

 

Charla Johnson, MSN, RN, ONC, was recognized with the Nurse of the Year Nightingale Award.

 

Corrine Rougeau, MN, FNP-C, NP-C, CSC, was recognized with the Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year Nightingale Award.

 

Susan Steele-Moses, DNS, APRN, AOCN, was recognized with the Mentor of the Year Nightingale Award.

 

Angela Dykes, RN, was recognized with the Rookie of the Year Nightingale Award.

 

Deborah Ford, RN, MSN was recognized with the Volunteer of the Year Nightingale Award.

 

Coletta Barrett, RN, MHA, FAHA was recognized with the Outstanding Community Service Nightingale Award.

 

BATON ROUGE – Anna Cazes, RN, MSN, DNS, has been named Vice President of Patient Care for Baton Rouge General. She was previously director of nursing for Baton Rouge General’s Mid City campus.

 

Before joining the General, she was previously department chair for the Division of Nursing and Allied Health at Baton Rouge Community College. She additionally served as a nursing professor for several other local nursing schools, including Our Lady of the Lake College and Southern University. She has also held management positions at other hospitals and homecare companies, such as Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and Healthcare Options, Inc.

 

Cazes received a bachelor of science in nursing from Loyola University, a master of science in nursing from Southern University, and a doctorate of nursing science from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.

 

HAMMOND — Terri Lewis of Hammond has been promoted to Assistant Vice President of Surgical Services.

 

Lewis’ North Oaks experience spans more than 30 years, with more than half of her career spent in a Surgical Services directorship capacity.

 

Lewis is currently pursuing a master’s degree in health administration through St. Francis Cabrini’s Baton Rouge campus and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Southeastern Louisiana University.

 

Cullen Meyers of Covington has been promoted to Vice President of Diagnostics for North Oaks Health System from the Assistant Vice President position.

 

Meyers came to North Oaks a decade ago as Director of Radiology and was promoted to Assistant Vice President of Diagnostics in 2008. He is registered through the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists and was honored as our Director of the Year in 2004.

 

Prior to joining North Oaks, Meyers served as Director of Radiology, Cardiology and Radiation Therapy for Touro Infirmary in New Orleans.

 

Meyers earned a bachelor’s degree in health care administration from the College of St. Francis in Joliet, IL. Professionally, he belongs to American Healthcare Radiology Administrators.

 

William “Will” Waring Jr. of Metairie has joined North Oaks Health System as Vice President/Clinics.

 

He brings more than 25 years of leadership in the health care industry and an extensive legal background to his new position. After beginning his professional career as a private practice attorney, he held several management roles with the former Southern Baptist Hospital in New Orleans.

 

Most recently, Waring provided a wide array of health care legal services through The Apollo Law Firm, which he founded in 1998. 

 

After earning a bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University in Missouri, Waring went on to earn both a juris doctorate degree in law and a master’s degree in health administration from Tulane University in New Orleans. Since 2001, he has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Tulane’s University School of Medicine.

 

Stephanie Kropog of Hungarian Settlement has been promoted to Director from Coordinator of the Physician Services Department of North Oaks Health System.

 

To better serve the growth and needs of the North Oaks Medical Staff, Stephanie will oversee physician recruitment, physician and allied health credentialing and orientation, physician reappointment and quality initiatives.

 

A graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Stephanie brings more than 12 years of health care recruitment and marketing experience to this new directorship.

 

BATON ROUGE – Baton Rouge General announced that it is breaking ground on an expansion at its Bluebonnet location. The construction will add approximately 18,000 square feet of physician clinic space over the existing Critical Care Tower. The new facilities will provide direct access to the General’s ICU, surgery suites, emergency center, cardiology and Cath Labs.

 

The new construction will house patient exam rooms, waiting areas, physician offices, procedure rooms and space for support staff and services associated with physician clinics.

 

Construction is scheduled to begin by the end of the month and will take approximately 16 months to complete. The cost of the expansion is $6 million. 

 

BATON ROUGE –Stacy Jones, MD, has joined the Primary Care Group, part of General Health System’s Community of Caring physicians.

 

She is a recent graduate of Baton Rouge General’s Family Medicine Residency Program and served as chief resident. She is also a graduate of St. Matthew’s University School of Medicine in Grand Cayman.

 

Dr. Jones joins Drs. Donnie Batie, Vasanthi Vinayagam, Darakhshan Wahid at the Primary Care Group.