CHRISTUS Schumpert makes changes

CHRISTUS Schumpert recently announced a new strategic direction, which will expand the Highland location and close the St. Mary Place location.

A landmark local hospital location will soon undergo a major change as CHRISTUS Health Shreveport-Bossier repurposes its 1 St. Mary’s Place location in the Highland neighborhood.

Last month, spokesmen announced “a new strategic direction,” changing how the system will deliver health care to the region and a capital investment of $55 million to make the changes a reality. The changes include an expansion of the current CHRISTUS Highland location on the Bert Kouns Industrial Loop and the addition of new outpatient locations.

“We have looked at the ways people want and need their health care delivered now and into the future and determined a new direction,” CHRISTUS Health Louisiana President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wright explained in a news release.

The new direction, Wright said, was determined after more than a year of study by the hospital’s leadership and board. The group reportedly studied area population growth patterns and preferences for health-care delivery before making its decision to close the iconic main campus, expand its Highland location and create outpatient services at multiple locations across the area.

Wright said the best use of the main Schumpert campus would be determined by working closely with the community.

Dana Smelser, director of marketing and business development for CHRISTUS Health, said Dynamis, a consulting company that repurposes facilities, will be instrumental in finding that best use. “They will be here talking with community players and beginning to gain an understanding and have a discussion with our community leaders to talk about what all the possibilities might be. And the possibilities are endless,” Smelser said.

She said while the facility won’t offer in-patient care, there could be health care available if studies indicate that’s what people want. She emphasized that CHRISTUS is not abandoning the property. “There is zero interest on our part to board up the windows and walk away. The $55 million investment by CHRISTUS is the best indicator that I can offer that we are going nowhere, and our commitment is not lessening. It is different. It’s adjusting to what’s happening in our local market but where health care is on a national level.”

She said the changes are planned to tailor health-care services to the needs of the community. “We know that health care is changing, and that health care is not as much about in-patient care as we have known it to be in decades past,” she said.

While the expanded CHRISTUS Highland location will absorb some of the services from the main campus, other services will be phased out. Smelser said those services were redundant and are available at other locations in the region. “For example, we will shut our pediatric intensive care unit, and we will not re-open [those] beds at Highland. That’s an example of a service that’s duplicated in the community, because there are other PICUs in the community,” Smelser said.

The new strategy means the closure of Sutton Children’s Hospital. “To date, we’ve had this comprehensive, specialized children’s hospital in the form of Sutton,” Smelser said. “Going forward, we will not have all those specialized pediatric services. We will continue to have [the neonatal intensive care unit]; we will continue to take care of children in the emergency room at Highland. If a child needs to go in-patient and have in patient care, there will be beds available for pediatric patients at Highland. Already, that care exists. It’s not a new thing for Highland. Again, it’s that transition from Schumpert to Highland that’s occurring.”

Smelser said CHRISTUS would also set up primary care practices and recruit doctors and staff for locations throughout the community. Wright said the new primary care facilities, labs, diagnostic imaging centers and outpatient services would be more easily available to patients.

Smelser stressed that the alterations at CHRISTUS were not an indication of a retrenching. “Our commitment to health care in this community remains firm and strong. Our mission remains extending the healing ministry of Jesus. That’s what we do every day. We will continue to do that every day. We look forward to caring for this community and being a part of this community as we have in the past.”

– Joe Todaro