HJNO Mar/Apr 2022

DIALOGUE 12 MAR / APR 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   evolved that with a new partnership with Delgado College and have worked with them in building a new facility for allied health at Delgado and looking to more than double the amount of students they have in their allied health programs. We built a new nursing school with Loyola University, and that has grown and expanded pretty significantly. And, we’re looking to expand broader partnerships in other parts of the state into the academic institutions to grow the pipeline. In addition to that, we started what we call Ochsner Scholars, which we’re provid- ing, essentially, full tuition and certain clini- cal positions for our workers that want to go back and improve their education and be able to take higher-level positions. And, if they make an ongoing work commitment to Ochsner, we’re fully funding their tuition. That’s a way that we’re trying to grow the pipeline and also help our employee base advance their efforts. Finally, we really are building a pipeline much earlier in junior high and high school, having people understand whether they’re interested in a healthcare career, and if they are, how they can get on a pathway to one of our academic partners post high school and then move to a career with Ochsner. So, we’re trying to build a pipeline at mul- tiple levels. It’s not enough today. We have to keep building and growing on that, but it’s certainly a big focus for us and something that we’ll spend a lot of time and energy on in the next 12 to 36 months. Editor What percentage of your hospital, would you say is offline due to staffing issues? Thomas Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t quote that off the top of my head. Editor But it is certainly being affected? Thomas Certainly being affected. There are ORs that have been closed. We had to close several areas during Christmas, NewYear’s when we had more of a spike. Yes, there are definitely beds that are closed across our system, but I can’t tell you the exact num- ber right now. I know we have about 400 employees out on quarantine [at the time of this interview]. That was as high as 1,400 during the week between Christmas and New Year. So, it’s come down in the past several weeks, but, as I said, it’s still about 400 that are on quarantine today. Editor Ochsner has been in growth mode for a while. Do you see that continuing, and what is the master plan? Thomas Yeah, we absolutely see our growth and expansion continuing. As I indicated earlier, it’s one of our top five things we’re focused on. I think you’ll see significant growth and focus in our centers of excel- lence, in our outpatient areas. We are invest- ing a certain amount of resource, capital in outpatient services and trying to be more convenient and easier to use for our patients in that area. We’re putting an investment in our digital tools, which we believe are going to bring new capabilities and new access for patients. Additionally, you’ll see us grow in each of the markets that we’re in today: Shreve- port, Monroe, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, North Shore, Bayou, and New Orleans, but also just the expansion outside of Louisiana. We announced the merger of Rush Health Sys- tem in Meridian, Mississippi, joining Och- sner will be complete in 2022. And, I think you’ll see other expansions outside of Loui- siana in the next year or two. Editor I know you have worked with the state and set forth a 10-year plan to improve overall health rankings. What do you think is the biggest nonemergent health challenge of our state? Thomas I think there are a number of health challenges in our state. Certainly, health equity is a major issue across our coun- try, and certainly it’s an issue in Louisiana. It’s why we partner with Xavier Univer- sity to create the Ochsner-Xavier Institute for Health Equity and Research, and we’re really focusing on how we can create bet- ter solutions and improve health equity among the populations that we serve in the region. That’ll be part of our 10-year plan — new programs, new approaches to improve health equity. The second area, I would say, is access to medical care, and it’s one of the reasons that we’re building 15 community health centers around our state looking to improve access in areas that are underserved and providing an easy, close-to-home option in a number of communities. It initially focused in the urban communities, but we will continue to grow and advance that in other markets as well. We studied our ER volume and where folks are coming from for conditions that can be taken care of in an outpatient or a physician office and really have targeted many of those locations to build these community health centers, which will also have comprehensive mental health services, women’s services, and other social services. The third is health literacy and continu- ing to help people understand how they can take better care of themselves and under- stand the things that they need to do to take better care of themselves. Part of this is around the management of chronic disease, things like hypertension and diabetes, which are extremely prevalent in Louisiana. We build digital tools that allow us to connect with patients in new digital ways, remotely from home, that can help people manage their diabetes and hypertension. Coupled with that is smoking. We have got to get more people to quit smoking in the state. It’s a big driver of health issues, not just things that we normally think of around cancer, but it also impacts hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, pulmonary disease. So, smoking is a big focus and a big target for us as we look to grow and expand our smoking cessation programs across the state. The fourth area’s around mental health. We know that mental health is an accompa- nying condition with many other healthcare issues, and we’ve worked hard to expand our mental health services, nearly doubling