LSU Hospital May Get Burn, Trauma Center

              Bossier Metro THURSDAY. JANUARY 24, 1980 SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, LA., • SHREVEPORT JOURNAL
LSU Hospital May Get Burn, Trauma Center
By MARY DURUSAU
Bossier Metro Writer
Louisiana State University could
become the first hospital in north
Louisiana to have a burn and trauma
center, after receiving preliminary
approval on the project Wednesday.
The Northwest Subarea Advisory
Council's project review committee
gave preliminary approval to the
proposed $2.5 million project at its
regular meeting at the Hilton Inn in
Bossier City Wednesday. State funds
for the project, which could be com-pleted
within a year, have been ap-proved.
Robert Hall, hospital adminis-trator,
said the unit would include
nine beds for trauma intensive care
patients, four beds for acute burn
cases, four beds for comprehensive
trauma care and eight convalescent
beds for burn patients.
"This would be the first burn cen-ter
in this area," Hall said. "The
only other intensive care burn unit is
in Baton Rouge."
Hall said the architectural firm of
Randle Hand and Associates has
begun drawing plans for the unit,
which will not be an addition to the
hospital, but renovation of existing
hospital space.
"If we can get the necessary ap-provals
we expect to put it out for
bids in three or four months and get
the project under construction within
the next six months," Hall said.
The trauma-burn care unit would
also include a hydrotherapy facility
as well as an operating room.
"The project will not actually add
25 beds to our total number of
licensed beds," Hall said. "We'll
simply be rededicating 25 existing
licensed beds."
The hospital administrator said if
the hospital currently receives a
critically ill burn or trauma patient
which it is not equipped to handle,
the patient has to be transported to
Galveston or Houston for treatment.
"Which costs us precious time to
treat the patient," Hall said.
Hall noted that the hospital sees an
average of 1,000 trauma cases a
month and has an average of six
burn patients at one time.
A report by the HSA's subcommit-tee
staff concurred with Hall's
statement of need for such a facility
in this area. Subcommittee chair-man
Dr. Adrain Bacarisse com-mended
the hospital for its proposal.
"This is a big step forward for
Louisiana," Bacarisse said. "One of
the things we hear from people often
is why do we have to go out of the
area for care. LSU is to be com-mended
for this project proposal."
The project proposal will now be
turned over the the HSA's governing
board, which will vote on the pro-posal
at its Jan. 30 meeting.
The subcommittee also discussed
at length a proposal by Natchitoches
Parish Hospital for construction of
an additional floor to the hospital.
Eugene Spillman, hospital direc-tor,
said a new three-floor hospital
building presently is under construc-tion.
After that facility is complete
the hospital staff will move into the
new facility and conveert its present
location into a long-range care unit.
"When this project was approved
we estimated that the three-floors
would provide enough space for
years," Spillman said. "But we've
added several physicians to our staff
in the last few months of 1979 and
have seen a dramatic increase in our
patient days."
Spillman said the hospital was
asking to 'shell-in' a fourth floor.
"We feel like there's going to be a
need for an additional floor in the
near future and by shelling it in we
won't have to go to the expense of
tearing the roof off the third floor
when we get to the construction
point.
"This way we'll save the cost of
tearing off the roof, which will be an
approximate $250,000,"he added.
But the HSA subcommittee staff
has some serious reservations about
the feasibility of that proposal. Ac-cording
to a staff report presented at
the meeting, the hospital board has
not made any long-range plans for
the shelled-in area. "Shelled-in space
as a hedge against inflation sounds
like a good idea on the surface —
except when it is not backed by data
specifying its need in the future and
when it costs the public $45,000 per
year (in amortization) for an idle
asset," the report said.
The staff report also warned that
approval of the "shelled-in" space is
"virtually an approval of beds in the
future and should be regarded in that
manner."
But the committee members voted
to give preliminary approval to the
project with the stipulation that the
hospital provide the executive gov-erning
board with additional
documentation about its long-range
plans for the hospital.
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