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Regular Session, 2014
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 162
BY SENATOR BROOME
MENTAL HEALTH. Requests the Department of Health and Hospitals and the division of
administration to report to the Senate and House committees on health and welfare why the
operation of the Earl K. Long Medical Center Mental Health Emergency Room Extension
was not continued upon privatization of that hospital, and how such services will be resumed
in Baton Rouge.
A RESOLUTION1
To urge and request the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the division of2
administration to report to the Senate and House committees on health and welfare3
why the operation of the Mental Health Emergency Room Extension (MHERE)4
previously in operation from 2010 through 2013 at the Earl K. Long Medical Center5
was not continued upon privatization of that hospital, and how such services will be6
resumed in the community of Baton Rouge.7
WHEREAS, from January 2010 through April 2013, the publicly operated Earl K.8
Long Medical Center, assisted by the Capital Area Human Services District, operated a9
Mental Health Emergency Room Extension (MHERE); and 10
WHEREAS, this Mental Health Emergency Room Extension served as a ten-to-11
fifteen bed crisis receiving center where specialized staff provided a high level of screening12
and assessment to people in behavioral health crises, in order to accurately connect those13
patients to either acute or ongoing community-based treatment to diminish the recurrent14
need for crisis services; and 15
WHEREAS, this MHERE served as a crisis continuum component that assisted law16
enforcement, hospital emergency departments, and jails, as well as public and private sector17
budgets, in dealing with increasing deinstitutionalization; the effects of increasing substance18 SR NO. 162
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abuse; and helping those returning to our communities from active combat; and 1
WHEREAS, within two years of operating ten to fifteen beds at a time at an annual2
operational cost of one-point-six million dollars, this MHERE served more than thirty-four3
hundred patients and saved the state more than twenty-point-six million dollars by avoiding4
hospitalizations for more than sixty-five percent of the patients admitted to the MHERE; and5
WHEREAS, in April 2013, with the privatization of the Earl K. Long Medical6
Center, the MHERE was shut down and no longer operates in Baton Rouge; and 7
WHEREAS, now other local hospital emergency rooms and parish prison facilities8
are seeing a significant increase in admittance of people in behavioral health and substance9
abuse disorder crises; and10
WHEREAS, the original February 5, 2010, cooperative endeavor agreement entered11
into by the state of Louisiana, through the division of administration and the Department of12
Health and Hospitals, during the privatization of the Earl K. Long Medical Center, provided13
that the state would work cooperatively with the Capital Area Human Services District and14
the Department of Health and Hospitals, office of mental health to address the ongoing15
provision of mental health services in the service area. 16
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana17
does hereby urge and request the Department of Health and Hospitals and the division of18
administration to investigate and, on or before September 1, 2014, report to the Senate and19
House committees on health and welfare why the Mental Health Emergency Room20
Extension or a comparable facility was not continued in the privatization of the Earl K. Long21
Medical Center, and how the department and the division plan to ensure that those services22
are resumed in the community of Baton Rouge. 23
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the24
secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals and the commissioner of the division25
of administration.26 SR NO. 162
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1
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Julie J. Baxter.
DIGEST
Broome SR No. 162
Requests the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the division of
administration to report to the Senate and House committees on health and welfare why the
operation of the Mental Health Emergency Room Extension (MHERE) previously in
operation from 2010 through 2013 at the Earl K. Long Medical Center was not continued
upon privatization of that hospital, and how such services will be resumed in the community
of Baton Rouge.