Christus Health Shreveport-Bossier marked a new phase of construction Tuesday as part of a $55 million plan to relocate and consolidate its services at its Highland Medical Center.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held for its West Wing, which will house cancer treatment, neonatal care, a birthing center, and a rehabilitation unit. With the completion of the West Wing 18 months from now, all units from its soon-to-be closed Schumpert Medical Center will be relocated to Highland.
Christus chief operating officer Dr. William Lunn says there’s strong demand to cluster services at Highland, but not without growing pains.
“We’re already working on a concept of how do we accommodate the doctors who’ve begun to talk to us about wanting to locate on this campus? Frankly, we are getting really short on office space. That’s why we bought this land behind our building from the Phillips Foundation. We’re already finding that we’re going to need to think about developing a medical office building on this space," Lunn said, following the ceremony.
Christus is moving rapidly and has bought up about 13 acres adjacent to its Highland property.Lunnsays its neonatal intensive care unit and Birth Place will relocate to a temporary space in the fall, well before the West Wing is completed.
Christuschief medical officer Dr. SteenTrawicksays healthcare has changed since theSchumpertmedical tower was built in the1980s,accommodating more than 600 patient beds.
“That was the era where you could come in and stay for R and R for a week. Healthcare has evolved to the point where you can’t do that anymore. It’s to get the patient in, get them taken care of in a very effective, efficient, timely manner," Trawick said.
Lunnsays the Highland Medical Center will have about 200 patient beds. He says the hospital system currently employs about 900 full-time staff, down from about 1,200 a year ago when it announced it would close itsSchumpertfacility.
Copyright 2021 Red River Radio. To see more, visit Red River Radio. 9(MDA4NjIwNTkwMDEzMjI4NDY0MjY4ZTBlNA004))
