By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Many current residents of LaPlace may not remember a time when medical care was not so readily available as it is today, but one man who does is Dr. S.J. St. Martin, who opened LaPlace Medical Center 50 years ago.

When he opened the clinic’s doors on July 12, 1960, much of the area was still consumed by fields, and the only doctor in town operated an office near the present-day intersection of Main Street and West Fifth Street. Two years earlier, the St. Martin Pharmacy closed. It occupied the same parcel of land where the parking lot of the LaPlace Medical Center is today.

To celebrate the milestone, Dr. Andrew St. Martin, one of the doctors on staff at LaPlace Medical, organized a celebration and invited many of the medical center’s former employees.

Beverly Montz, who worked at the clinic on that first day and for 29 years thereafter, recalled many of the changes she saw throughout her years there.

“I was the receptionist, the nurse, everything,” she said.

She said at that time, the clinic was much smaller and — a sign of the time and place — segregated. Montz was quick to point out, however, that although the front of the clinic, the entrances and waiting rooms, were segregated, the examination and treatment spaces were not.

The clinic took off right from the start according to Montz. “We got plenty of patients right away.”

Appointments were nonexistent in those days, so Montz and the rest of the staff often had to put in long days, treating patients who made it through the door before 5 p.m.

“It was rough,” Montz recalled. “We didn’t have a cut off time.”

And the doctor lived across the street, so patients would sometimes knock on his door after hours. That’s all in addition to the house calls he regularly made.

“The office was really, really busy at that time. We had specialists coming in,” said Montz. “He would ask specialists to come in one day per week.”

Through the years, things around the clinic have changed, though some things never will.

“We’re still growing and very busy,” said Andrew St. Martin, adding, “We no longer deliver babies.”

He also explained that with the proliferation of specialized care as well as the presence of River Parishes Hospital, the role of the clinic has changed but its vision and level of care have not.

“Even though there are all sorts of changes, we hope to deliver good, personal care and really take care of the person,” he said.