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Regular Session, 2012 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 191
BY SENATOR CHABERT
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare to study the governance,
efficiencies, and service delivery of the Louisiana State University Health Care
Services Division and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.
WHEREAS, the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division (LSU-
HCSD) operates hospitals, clinics, and trauma centers around the state, serving hundreds of
thousands of patients every year; and
WHEREAS, in 1936 the Legislature of Louisiana created a state hospital board to
implement the late Governor Huey P. Long's plan to build a chain of charity hospitals around
the state, and the building of these facilities continued through the next three decades; and
WHEREAS, that chain of hospitals looks very different today, generally competing
in the marketplace for available health care dollars on a par with privately-owned and
nonprofit healthcare facilities; and
WHEREAS, today LSU-HCSD operates the following hospitals: Bogalusa Medical
Center, E.A. Conway Medical Center (Monroe), Earl K. Long Medical Center [to partner
with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center] (Baton Rouge), Huey P. Long Medical
Center (Pineville), Interim LSU Public Hospital (New Orleans), Lallie Kemp Medical Center
(Independence), L.J. Chabert Medical Center (Houma), LSU Hospital (Shreveport),
University Medical Center (Lafayette), and W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center (Lake
Charles); and
WHEREAS, these hospitals serve every corner of the state and offer essential
services to both inpatients and outpatients, often providing the only inpatient, emergency,
and psychiatric care within a reasonable distance; and
WHEREAS, in 2010 these hospitals recorded more that three hundred thousand
inpatient days (one patient/day/bed), nearly one million six hundred thousand outpatient
visits, over four hundred thousand emergency department encounters (patients treated), and
over one million one hundred thousand outpatient clinic visits; and SR NO. 191 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, sixty percent of all physician residents and fellows in Louisiana are
assigned to and trained in the LSU-HCSD hospitals at any one time, and nearly all those
practicing in the state have worked in these facilities and outpatient clinics at some time
during their medical training; and
WHEREAS, in serving this huge portion of the population of Louisiana's sick and
injured, these hospitals serve a strategic and vital role in training medical, nursing, and allied
health professionals both while attending medical school and through residency training after
graduation; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSU-HSC) operates
the medical school in New Orleans, the medical school in Shreveport, school of nursing in
New Orleans, the dental school in New Orleans, and the school of allied health professions
in New Orleans; and
WHEREAS, medical education and research are related pursuits and the LSU-HSC
asserts that academic excellence in research heightens the intellectual atmosphere, develops
new knowledge, and transmits current information for the benefit of all Louisianians; and
WHEREAS, the undergraduate training programs at these institutions enable students
to become competent, caring physicians, nurses, dentists, and allied health professionals,
most of whom remain in the state of Louisiana to practice following graduation; and
WHEREAS, these undergraduate training programs assess and adjust to the changing
physician workforce, as well as nursing and allied health, to meet the health care needs of
the state as a whole.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby urge and request the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare to study the
governance, efficiencies, and service delivery of the Louisiana State University Health Care
Services Division and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare
report its findings and conclusions to the Senate no later than February 1, 2013.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE