Shifting LSU’s medical education and hospital from Earl K. Long Medical Center to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center could double the number of residents trained in Baton Rouge, hospital officials said.

 

LSU now has around 75 residents at Earl K. Long and 25 or so at the Lake, said Dr. Larry Hollier, chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans. Within the next five years, the Lake could have as many as 250 LSU residents in training.

 

Lake CEO Scott Wester offered a more conservative estimate of the number of students, 100 to 125 after five years, but said the arrangement helps address the state’s doctor shortage.

 

“The sole purpose that the Lake is doing this collaboration is to enhance the availability of future physicians in our communities,” Wester said. “That is the No. 1 reason why we’re doing this collaboration: to secure the right supply of physicians for the future, not only for our region but really throughout the state.”

 

LSU and the Lake have discussed a deal for several years but only recently reached an agreement.

 

Louisiana provides healthcare for the uninsured but for decades, the state has not set aside enough money for that service, Hollier said. The result for Earl K. Long has been a long, long period of disrepair and threats from The Joint Commission to revoke the hospital’s accreditation.

 

The facility just doesn’t meet current standards, Hollier said. Among other things, patient rooms do not have attached bathrooms; those lie down the hall, and there are seven patients for every bathroom.

 

Gov. Bobby Jindal opposes a replacement facility and its $400 million price tag, Hollier said. The question became, how does the charity system take care of those patients? Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the Lake, with its mission of caring for the underserved, appeared a logical solution.

 

The Lake is the state’s largest private hospital, with more than 760 licensed beds and plans to expand to 950, Hollier said. It’s also a very successful hospital; more than 95 percent of its patients are insured.

 

Earl K. Long has only 70 licensed beds, Hollier said. The move would add only marginal costs for the Lake since its infrastructure was already funded.

 

The deal fell through before the storm because the Lake’s physicians, used to a community hospital setting, didn’t want residents and the changes they entailed, Hollier said.

 

But LSU seven of its nine teaching hospitals in New Orleans in Katrina and had to find spots for more than 350 residents, Hollier said. The Lake agreed to take on 27.

 

Then something interesting happened, he said. The Lake’s patient satisfaction improved.

 

“Patients liked the fact that they had residents and students there, talking to them and looking in on them more often than just their regular doctor,” Hollier said.

 

The doctors in the residency programs liked the fact that the residents took care of routine issues that arose at 2 a.m., Hollier said. Other specialists saw this and started saying they wanted residents, too.

 

Eventually the Lake’s board of directors decided the hospital would get involved in graduate medical education, Hollier said. This time the Lake approached LSU.

 

Hollier said LSU would be happy to help the Lake become a major teaching center, but LSU wanted to make sure that the graduate medical education was consistent statewide.

 

For the last several months, LSU and the Lake have been working out the details, he said.

 

Wester said the Lake will spend $100 million initially and around $200 million over the next five years. Earl K. Long is expected to close at some point after 2013.

 

The money will go to add a new East Tower and more beds; the area’s first Level 1 Trauma Center (the designation means the center can meet almost every emergency and trauma need); a medical education building; medical office space; and support service renovations in the pharmacy, cafeteria, laboratory and laundry needed for the additional patients.

 

While the Lake also offers services, such as heart surgery, that Earl K. Long does not, there are other issues. The Lake will not offer obstetrics and gynecological services.

 

LSU is looking at Woman’s Hospital, which has already volunteered, and Baton Rouge General for that care, Hollier said. The hospitals have to work out how the state will fund the care of those uninsured patients, just as the Lake did.

 

Jindal has said the state will put up $38 million for the collaboration, with $24 million of that already set aside in state construction funds. The remainder will be included in the next fiscal year’s budget.

 

The Lake will also be eligible for federal funds to help offset the cost of training residents, Wester said. The funding is driven by how many Medicare patients the Lake treats.

 

However, that money won’t be enough to cover the cost of teaching the residents, which is around $20,000 to $40,000 per student a year, depending on the specialty, he said. With 100 residents, the Lake is looking at a cost of $4 million a year.

 

“It's expensive but I think it's worth the money to enhance the availability of doctors,” Wester said.