Ochsner moving hospital location within LaPlace

Ochsner and Acadia Healthcare announced this week they are partnering to renovate the Ochsner Medical Complex – River Parishes campus on Rue de Santé in LaPlace, turning the location into an 82-bed behavioral health facility slated to open in the first half of 2018, employing 145 people when operational.

In a related move, Ochsner also announced the services and staff at Ochsner Medical Complex – River Parishes will move to a free-standing $12 million medical facility located near Tiffany Drive and Airline Highway in LaPlace.

The planned 20,000 square foot medical complex is expected to open by the summer of 2017 and will house a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week emergency department and advanced diagnostics center.

Ochsner Kenner CEO Stephen Robinson told L’OBSERVATEUR the 90 employees working at the River Parishes campus are expected to move to the new facility when it’s complete.

Facility need

Ochsner said Louisiana ranks 39th in the nation for access to care related to substance abuse and mental health treatment, and recent estimates demonstrate a need for more than 400 beds in greater New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Acadia Healthcare Chairman and CEO Joey Jacobs said facility leaders look forward to helping “thousands of patients at this new facility each and every year.”

Warner Thomas, president and chief executive officer at Ochsner Health System, said 4,000 patients were transferred from eight Ochsner emergency departments last year to other facilities for psychiatric care, adding the LaPlace partnership addresses the need for behavioral health services throughout Louisiana.

Ochsner is providing the facility, and Acadia will invest at least $16 million in renovations, equipment and working capital. The new facility is expected to serve more than 60 patients daily, with more than 2,500 annual admissions and more than 3,000 outpatient visits.

The behavioral health facility will be located behind the three-story medical office building on Rue de Santé.

“The office building will continue in the immediate future to provide for outpatient medical clinics or practices,” Robinson said. “Today, we have several Ochsner practices there, as well as independent physician practices. The plan would be to continue that in the near term future, with opportunity to add additional out-patient (services) complimentary to the new behavioral health facility.”

Robinson said Acadia Healthcare is the largest behavioral health provider in the country.

“Behavioral health is not necessarily a core service for Ochsner, so we wanted to make sure we were partnering with a partner who has a tremendous amount of experience and a great reputation,” Robinson said.

Parish benefit

St. John Parish Councilman Buddy Boe said the repurposing of the old facility creates new jobs and brings in a partner to fill the mental health treatment void that exists between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

“There are many facilities like this being considered, because there is a need,” Boe said.

St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom said she is excited about the announcement and Ochsner’s commitment to St. John the Baptist Parish.

“In addition to providing much needed medical and behavioral health care for our residents, their planned investment of nearly $30 million will provide an economic boon to our area and create more than 145 quality jobs,” she said in a release from Ochsner. “The new facility and repurposing of the existing facility are two more components to St. John’s path to prosperity.”

Ochsner Health System acquired the former River Parishes Hospital in November 2014.

— Staff writer Raquel Derganz Baker contributed to this report.