Willis-Knighton to unveil new Innovation Center in former Bossier General Hospital
Willis-Knighton Health Systems has been busy making changes to the landscape of healthcare in Northwest Louisiana. Their latest project to near completion is the Willis-Knighton Innovation Center in the former Bossier General Hospital, located at 2105 Airline Dr. in Bossier City. The WK Innovation Center will open its doors early this spring.
“We had the opportunity to purchase the old Bossier [General Hospital] about a year and a half ago. It had fallen into disarray and had been abandoned for quite a while now. [James Elrod, president and chief executive officer of WK Health Systems] had the foresight to know we could do something with that building at the time, and came up with the idea for having the area for an incredible meeting space for not only hospital employees, but also nonprofits in the community, as well as a virtual hospital,” Riley Waddell, assistant administrator for business development for Willis-Knighton, said. “It’s a special place for many of the residents of Bossier. Willis-Knighton just wanted to do their part to ensure that it was a facility that everyone could be proud of. We want the community to feel like it’s as much their building as it is ours,” Waddell said.
The WK Innovation Center will serve three purposes.
First, it provides meeting space for hospital functions and meeting space for nonprofits in the community.
“We have the huge,150-seat Miciotto Auditorium named after Dr. John Miciotto who was an OB/GYN in Bossier City for many years and delivered 17,000 babies in his career. He was a staple in the medical community and we wanted to honor him by naming the auditorium for him,” Waddell said. “We also have a small, 20-seat theater that can be used for educational films – both internally and for local nonprofits. There’s also a nice banquet room that seats 80 where we can have events, a few more small conference rooms and an executive board room. We’re excited because like every other nonprofit, we are always looking for meeting space, and now we have a facility that can not only accommodate our needs but also meet the needs of smaller nonprofits in the community that just don’t have the assets to have that kind of space,” Waddell said. The facility also boasts a 60-seat classroom, coffee bar and food court with full kitchen.
Second, the innovation center will be the home of the WK Virtual Hospital and Career Institute for continuing education. The WK Virtual Hospital is furnished like an actual, operating hospital to replicate real-life situations for clinical staff to practice their skills in a controlled environment. “We have eight high fidelity simulators. They are like actual human beings; they cry, bleed, their eyes dilate, you can feel a pulse at different points in the body. They are really the next generation of training for nurses coming out of school now,” Waddell said. “We are not only going to train our own nurses as a source of continuing education but also offer the hospital space to schools in the area – actually we already have nine schools so far in North and Central Louisiana that have inquired about coming up and using our virtual hospital for training for their own students,” Waddell said. “It’s going to be a tremendous tool for the nursing schools in this region, to have a place where they can take the didactic learning that the kids are getting and actually put it to use in a simulated environment.”
The third purpose for the innovation center is to house the Willis-Knighton archives and equipment and furniture storage.
In addition, the building will also house the Talbot Museum, which was created in 2004 in celebration of Willis-Knighton’s 80th anniversary with the support of Dr. and Mrs. J. Dudley Talbot. “The Talbot Museum is our medical museum for our health system and it traces our history from the ’60s on,” Waddell said.
Waddell said the staff at Willis- Knighton are excited about the opening of the WK Innovations Center. “I cannot wait to show the community what we have been working on for the last year in a half,” Waddell said. “The Willis-Knighton team likes to say that the WK Innovation Center has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of Bossier General Hospital. We are excited that this once cherished facility can again be a great source of pride to the citizens of Bossier.”
– Mandy Byrd
