Hospitals Build in 1981

              Hospitals build in 1981
1981 was a year of building —
expansion, renovation and new con-struction
— on the Shreveport-Boss-ier
health care front.
A new hospital was completed in
Bossier City and construction was
begun on the first ambulatory sur-gical
center and satellite hospital in
Shreveport.
American Medical International
dedicated Riverside Community
Hospital in December and targeted
Jan. 4 as opening day of the new 102-
bed hospital at 4900 Medical Drive in
South Bossier City.
Willis-Knighton Medical Center
was on schedule in construction of its
66-bed South Park Hospital in
Southwest Shreveport, with comple-tion
of the $7.7 million satellite due
in 1983. In December, Willis-
Knighton began a $2 million ex-pansion
of its own surgery depart-ment,
a major aspect of that pro-gram
being a separate 11-bed outpa-tient
unit.
Ground was broken in September
for Shreveport's first ambulatory
surgical facility. Northwest Louisi-ana
Surgical Center is being built on
a Greenwood Road site one block
west of 1-20 by a local group, prima-rily
physicians, at a cost of $1.3
million. The same-day surgical cen-ter,
promoted as an alternative to
hospitals for the outpatient variety
of surgery, is due for completion
next May.
Bossier Medical Center was mov-ing
forward on its $10.9 million ex-pansion
and renovation program.
Construction began in July. Recent-ly,
a new parking lot was finished
and the steel was up for the wing for
the new radiology and emergency
departments and laboratory. To be
financed by revenue bonds, the
project includes construction of a
new boiler plant and renovation of
existing space for physical therapy,
cardiopulmonary therapy, medical
records, pharmacy and gift shop. It
is to be finished by late 1982 or early
1983.
Also going up is LSU Medical
Center's $23 million 11-story wing,
rising on the south side of LSU Hospi-tal.
Gov. David Treen was here for
the symbolic sod-turning ceremony
Jan. 23 officially launching the build-ing
program, which will enable the
state hospital to expand its clinical
capabilities and, with five patient
floors, phase out its wards.
For Highland Hospital, the year
was climaxed by completion of a
$4.6 million reconstruction and reno-vation
program begun in the spring
of 1980. Highland formally in-troduced
its new emergency depart-ment,
radiology unit, laboratory, in-tensive
care unit, nursery and phar-macy
with a ribbon-cutting ceremo-ny
on Dec. 18.
Also during the year, Physicians
and Surgeons opened a new spinal
cord injury unit, Schumpert Medical
Center opened a day care center for
the children of its employees and the
Shrine Hospital of North America
announced it would replace its 59-
year-old hospital here with a new 40-
bed facility.
(Times file photo)
Work continues on 11-story addition at LSU Medical Center
. . . the project carries a price tag of $23 million
12-30-81