LCMC moves patients, doctors from Tulane Medical Center to East Jefferson General Hospital | Business News
A year after purchasing the Tulane Medical Center, LCMC Health has completed its move of 500 Tulane doctors and medical residents, dozens of patients and the majority of the hospital’s services to East Jefferson General Hospital.
The move out of downtown New Orleans, which has been underway since the fall of 2023, was completed Saturday, according to LCMC Health President and CEO Greg Feirn. It involved transferring most of the hospital’s labs, pharmacy, medical equipment and nearly 50 patients who were being treated downtown to the Metairie hospital, which is also part of the nine hospital LCMC health system.
Tulane Medical Center is seen at 1415 Tulane Avenue in New Orleans on Monday, October 10, 2022. (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
The move also required shifting a handful of specialty services from Tulane Medical Center to the nearby University Medical Center, which is also operated by LCMC.
LCMC will continue to operate the Tulane Medical Center emergency room, though patients requiring surgery, cardiac procedures or an inpatient hospital stay will be diverted by EMS to East Jeff or UMC, depending on the seriousness of their condition.
Some clinical programs will also remain downtown, though others will shift to Metairie. LCMC officials said patients have been made aware for several months of the change.
The move marks a milestone for the partnership between Tulane and LCMC, which was first announced in the fall of 2022 and is a key piece of Tulane’s strategy to expand its downtown campus. The university is investing nearly $1 billion downtown over the next decade, including renovating the 31-story Tulane Medical Center building to accommodate a new nursing program, lab space and offices.
Mike Fitts.
“We do about $220 million worth of research a year, which is outside funding and we have totally run out of space,” Tulane President Mike Fitts said. “We’re exploding and we expect to see that continue and downtown for us is the locus of this activity.”
For LCMC, now one of just two hospital systems in the New Orleans market, the move is an opportunity to turn East Jeff into a teaching hospital, which brings with it new doctors and residents, new treatment protocols and an influx of patients to fill its beds, which are currently just 50% occupied.
“This is about workforce development, retention, keeping our patients in Louisiana and growing the economy and that is exciting,” said Feirn.
Busy year
LCMC purchased the 235-bed Tulane Medical and two other Tulane-run hospitals — Tulane Lakeside Hospital in Metairie and Lakeview Regional Hospital in Mandeville — from HCA Healthcare in January 2023.
Tulane Medical Center is seen at 1415 Tulane Avenue in New Orleans on Monday, October 10, 2022. (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
It the months that followed, it successfully fended off a legal challenge from the Federal Trade Commission over the $150 million hospital purchase. Under the Biden Administration, the FTC has frowned upon large hospital mergers, arguing they raise antitrust concerns by reducing competition and driving up costs.
LCMC successfully argued that the state, not the federal government, regulates hospital competitiveness issues and that then-Attorney General Jeff Landry had determined the deal would not adversely affect cost or quality of care.
LCMC’s purchase of the HCA hospitals leaves New Orleans with two large health systems, LCMC and Ochsner Health.
LCMC also faced opposition over its plans to close Tulane Medical Center from those who argued that shuttering the downtown hospital would hamper access to needed health care from the mostly low-income patients who rely on the facility.
Greg Feirn.
The hospital system said that by keeping clinical services downtown as well as an emergency room — even though it will not be able to handle trauma cases or patients with critical medical needs — patients will continue to receive the care they need.
“Tulane Medical Center’s emergency room is an access point that will remain open and function as it does today as well as outpatient clinics,” Feirn said.
Looking ahead
Saturday’s move involved transporting nearly 50 patients who were being treated at the hospital. Tulane stopped admitting patients more than a week ago in order to let the census numbers dwindle and disrupt care to as few patients as possible.
Other hospital services have been relocated to East Jeff. Stroke patients will be treated at UMC.
With the Tulane Medical Center building now cleared of hospital patients, staff and equipment, Tulane is moving forward with plans for its renovation. Fitts said that it’s too soon to say exactly how the 31 floors in the building will be divided up. There’s also no price tag for the renovation.
But the building will house Tulane’s new nursing program, which will be up and running this fall, as well as a college track program Tulane that helps prepare students for college. It will also have classroom space, research labs and, eventually, new offices for many Tulane employees currently working out of the 1555 Poydras Street office building.
“We have more employees downtown than uptown, so they will ultimately move from Poydras Street to Tulane Avenue,” Fitts said. “We also envision this as being a community center for an expanded downtown campus.”
Student housing will not be part of the mix, he said.
Upgrades for East Jeff
In the year since the deal was announced, LCMC has spent more than $220 million at East Jeff, including adding 37 new critical care units, eight new operating rooms and 15 new clinics. It has also purchased $15 million worth of new imaging equipment, and made $56 million worth of improvements to hospital’s infrastructure.
East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, La., Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. Negotiations to find a private operator for the financially troubled Metairie hospital recently broke down.
An expansion of the emergency room from 34 to 54 bays is currently underway and will continue through 2024, Feirn said.
Later this year, the ophthalmology and dermatology clinics, currently still located downtown, will move to East Jeff.
As for the two other Tulane hospitals in the LCMC system, no changes are planned for now.
“No significant changes are planned,” Feirn said. “Tulane Lakeside and Lakeview Regional are an important part of the clinical portfolio.”
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