Hospital unveils expansion plans

Plans for the construction of a new emergency room and other improvements highlighted the inaugural Acadia General Hospital Gala Friday night at the Grand Opera House.
The “black-tie optional” event featured a large, scale model of the hospital with the proposed E.R. addition along with architects’ renderings of the lay-out of the facility and various other changes planned for the hospital.
David Callecod, president and CEO of Lafayette General Health, which took over operation of the Crowley hospital in 2014, welcomed the large gathering present for the event before introducing the executive staff of the LGH and the hospital.
Heather Harper, CEO of Acadia General, explained the reasoning behind the expansion plans.
“The first thing we were told when we came into the hospital was, ‘We’ve got to get a new E.R. We can’t serve the population with the E.R. we have’,” Harper said.
The current E.R. at Acadia General is 3,358 square feet in area and has six exam rooms, four of which are divided by curtains.
The new facility will be 9,768 square feet and will include 16 exam rooms — “with walls, not curtains” — expanded nursing stations and a “fast-track” area (for the less emergent care patients), according to Harper.
Zack Landry, associate administrator at AGH, further explained that the new facility will be structured such that two additional floors can be added in the future.
“We also will include two psych holding rooms,” he added.
Other improvements outlined during the brief overview included:
• possible surgery expansion using the area now occupied by the current emergency room;
• a new surgery waiting and consult area;
• a new isolated breast center;
• a new registration area with more focus on patient confidentiality; and
• a new outpatient diagnostic entrance.
Cost of the new construction has been estimated at $2.8 million.
Harper said some changes have already been instituted in the emergency room area, including the addition of a nurse practitioner to assist with triage of patients upon entry.
“Since we added the nurse practitioner, the number of patients who have left the E.R. without being treated dropped from 17 percent to 4 percent in one month,” Harper said.
“And the volume of patients treated has gone up about 20 percent,” Landry added.
Harper said she hopes to break ground on the new construction, which will be located just off the current emergency room.
“We have to raise $1 million before we can break ground,” she said, adding, “We’ve raised $351,000 to date.”
Harper had addressed the Acadia Parish Police Jury in March seeking financial assistance from that body. However, jurors initially balked and voted instead to request an opinion from the state attorney general as to the “legality” of using parish money to fund a project for a private business.
MBSB Group of Lafayette is designing the new construction.
In addition to the new construction, LGH will bring in about $1 million in new equipment for the enlarged E.R., which is expected to generate about $55,000 of additional sales tax revenue for the parish and the city of Crowley.
The hospital currently employs 320 people with an annual payroll of $18 million. Sixty-nine percent of the hospital’s employees reside in Acadia Parish.
The hospital has an annual operating revenue of $34 million, with $2.1 million in annual expenditures spent in Acadia Parish and more that $500,00 in sales tax paid to the parish and the city.
Friday night’s Gala doubled as a fund-raiser for the hospital expansion project.
Silent and live auction items ranged from sports packages (including a trip for two to the 2015 ESPY Awards on July 15 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles) to a string of pearls.
Other items bid on during the night included a four-day, three-night shopping spree for two in New York; a seven-day, six-night trip for two to Paris, France; a four-day, three-night trip to Barbados; the chance to fly (with an experienced pilot) a fighter plane; numerous tickets to various football games, a spa day, a hunting package and more.
During the night, guests were treated to live opera in the upstairs theater — with a visit from “The Phantom.”
Downstairs, musical entertainment was provided by the Big John Miller Band from Arkansas until 11 p.m.