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Regular Session, 2014 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 127
BY SENATOR CHABERT
A RESOLUTION
To commend Dr. Frank Adams Riddick Jr. upon his impending retirement as president of
the South Louisiana Medical Associates Board of Directors and congratulate him for
his lifetime of service to the medical community and the state of Louisiana.
WHEREAS, Dr. Frank Riddick holds his undergraduate and medical degrees from
Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, Phi Chi medical
fraternity, and elected to Phi Beta Kappa and to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical
Society; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick furthered his medical education in internal medicine and
endocrinology at the Barnes Hospital-Washington University Complex in St. Louis,
Missouri; and
WHEREAS, he also attended the Program in Health Systems Management at the
Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick spent his entire career as both a doctor and administrator
in Ochsner Health System affiliated institutions, and held positions as head of the Section
of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, medical director and chief executive officer of
the Ochsner Clinic, chief executive officer of the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation, and
chief executive officer emeritus of the Ochsner Health System; and
WHEREAS, during Dr. Riddick's twenty-six years of leadership with Ochsner
institutions, the professional staff quintupled in size to over five hundred physicians, and the
health maintenance organization now has two hundred twenty-five thousand subscribers; and
WHEREAS, nationally, Dr. Riddick has served as past president of the American
College of Physician Executives, the American Group Practice Association, and the Society
of Medical Administrators, and chair of the American Medical Association's Council on
Medical Education and Council on Judicial and Ethical Affairs, while also obtaining the
distinction of Master of the American College of Physicians, the American College of
Endocrinology, as well as being designated a Distinguished Fellow of the American College
of Physician Executives; and SR NO. 127 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick has also served his community as a professor of clinical
medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick served his country with active duty in the United States
Army Medical Corps from 1955 through 1957 with the rank of captain and continued to
serve in the United States Army Reserves until 1963, achieving the rank of major; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick has served his faith community as a Vestryman of Trinity
Episcopal Church in New Orleans; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick is the beloved husband of Mary Belle Alston Riddick, as
well as a beloved and revered father and grandfather; and
WHEREAS, during his tenure as the medical director and chief executive officer of
the Ochsner Clinic, then-state representative and later state senator Leonard J. Chabert
approached Dr. Riddick about the possibility of having Ochsner staff the South Louisiana
Medical Center charity hospital then under construction in Houma, Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick saw this opportunity as mutually beneficial to Ochsner and
its physician group, the Bayou Region, its indigent and working poor of the area, and agreed
to staff the hospital; and
WHEREAS, in response to this calling, Dr. Riddick formed the South Louisiana
Medical Associates, an Ochsner-affiliated physician group to service the hospital; and
WHEREAS, the bond between Senator Chabert and Dr. Riddick was instrumental
in the launch of this new charity hospital and its unique public-private management
structure; and
WHEREAS, under the leadership of Dr. Riddick, the South Louisiana Medical
Center, now known as the Leonard J. Chabert Memorial Hospital, was one of the only
charity hospitals in the state to generate significant patient revenue; and
WHEREAS, the visionary model of a public-private partnership with significant
patient revenue instituted by Dr. Riddick for this hospital served as a guiding light for other
charity hospitals to emulate even to this day; and
WHEREAS, in addition to his title of chief executive officer emeritus of the Ochsner
Health System, Dr. Riddick is still actively serving as the president of the South Louisiana
Medical Association's board of directors; and SR NO. 127 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, Dr. Riddick has recently announced his plans to retire from service.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby commend Dr. Frank Adams Riddick Jr. upon his impending retirement as
president of the South Louisiana Medical Associates Board of Directors and congratulate
him for his lifetime of service to the medical community and the state of Louisiana.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Dr.
Frank Adams Riddick Jr.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE