Treen Joins Groundbreaking for New Med Center Wing

              6-A Fri., Jan. 23, 1981 SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER The Times
Treen joins groundbreaking for new Med Center wing
By SALLY REESE
Times Medical Writer
Three gilded spades with purple
handles turned three sods of rye grass
Thursday to symbolically start con-struction
of the 11-story wing at LSU
Medical Center in Shreveport.
Muscle power was provided by Gov.
Dave Treen of Louisiana, Chancellor
Allen A. Copping of the Louisiana State
University Medical System, and Dean
Ike Muslow of LSU Medical Center-
Shreveport.
Gov. Treen, who was instrumental in
nudging funds up from $18 million to
$21.1 million for the project, was the
principal speaker at the groundbreak-ing
ceremony for K Wing on the south
side of LSU Hospital.
He kept his remarks brief because of
the chilly weather, telling a shivering
crowd, "I don't want any one of us to
have to go to the (hospital) admitting
desk when this is over."
Treen said he had not seen the
Medical Center but knew it to be "one of
the most finely managed operations in
our system.
"I am sure lots of others in Louisiana
could learn from you here," he
declared.
The governor said he was dedicated
to the Medical Center's goals, "quality
patient care and medical education,"
and pledged continued support by his,
office.
He congratulated staff and personnel,
"who have contributed to the success of
this system," and he thanked them, both
as governor and as citizen of Louisiana.
Dean Muslow dedicated "that part of
ground I turn today" to the people who
work at the hospital and medical school.
Dr. Copping, chief of the stated
medical system, presided at the short
ceremony. Among the guests were
Mayor William T. Hanna Jr. of
Shreveport, Mayor Marvin Anding of
Bossier City, state Sen. Bill Keith and
state Reps. Forrest Dunn, Alphonse
Jackson and Johnny McFerren.
The first phase of the project is
already under way, site preparation
having begun about three weeks ago.
This involves the underground utilities
and a parking area, the latter described
as "just a start on greater parking space
for the medical center."
Robert E. McKee Inc. of Dallas, the
general contractor, expects to complete
the new wing in about three years.
The new wing will not increase the
licensed bed capacity (650) of the state
hospital but will expand its clinical
capabilities.
LSU's neonatal unit, for example, will
be able to care for at least 75 high-risk
newborns. The new surgery-recovery
and labor-delivery suites will have 16
operating rooms for surgery and three
for obstetrics-gynecology. Each of the
five patient floors will have 23 rooms
and be capable of serving 46 patients,
and will enable the hospital to phase out
its four-bed wards.
It will "allow us to pursue our goals of
excellence in patient care, teaching and
research," Dean Muslow said Thursday.