Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne has ruled out two potential operators from taking over management of north Louisiana’s two charity hospitals.
According to Baton Rouge Business Report, the state won’t be sitting down with Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, which owns Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, and LCMC Health, which owns Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, to discuss the possibility of partnering with them on Shreveport’s University Health or University Health Conway in Monroe.
On Dec. 1, the CEOs of FMOLHS and LMC sent a letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards asking him to come to the table regarding management of the hospitals.
The request follows news that the state is finalizing a deal with New Orleans-based Ochsner to take over management of the two facilities.
The state has been at odds with the Biomedical Research Foundation since almost the moment they took over managing the two north Louisiana hospitals.
In September, it notified BRF that the firm was in breach of contract with the state. To resolve the situation, BRF indicated it would be willing to work with Ochsner and gradually hand over its management contract.
Dardenne says the agreements worked out by the state under former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration require that the state follow such provisions.
“It’s not a contract so it won’t bind any party.But it will express the intent of (LSU, Ochsner and the state) to enter into an agreement in the future,” Dardenne told Baton Rouge Business Report.
