St. Landry is medical center for a growing region

St. Landry is medical center for a growing region Main Photo

1 Aug 2018


“The Most Wired hospitals are using every available technology option to create more ways to reach their patients in order to provide access to care,” said AHA president and CEO Rick Pollack. “They are transforming care delivery, investing in new delivery models in order to improve quality, provide access and control costs.”


The opening by Opelousas General Health System of a comprehensive cancer center, at its south campus on I-49 is yet another indicator of how St. Landry Parish’s increasingly sophisticated facilities have made the parish the medical center for a growing region.

At the same time, Mercy Regional Medical Center and it’s Eunice campus, Acadian Medical Center, have been awarded a top 5-star rating by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

“The growing recognition of the excellent medical care available here provides, most importantly, top-tier care for the people of St. Landry Parish, but it also means challenging, well compensated opportunities for nurses, technicians, and other support personnel,” according to St. Landry economic development director Bill Rodier. He noted that LSU-Eunice, the South Louisiana Community College, and the parish school system “have taken note of those opportunities and are expanding their courses to meet them.”        

In Opelousas, the new 11,000 square-foot Centre de la Vie, (Center of Life) offers “a multidisciplinary approach to cancer care that aligns patients with a highly skilled, expert medical staff.” according to a spokesman for the center. Services including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, infusion therapy and blood transfusions, all provided at the single location.

“Being diagnosed with cancer in itself is stressful enough,” said Debbie Deshotel, director of ancillary services at OGHS. “Traveling for treatment and being away from home can add to that stress. Our goal is to keep our patients close to home, family and work, because starting treatment does not mean stopping life,”

“Our main goal is to offer highly advanced cancer treatment which will ultimately enhance patient outcomes and add quality of life to those we serve,” according to Kenneth Cochran, OGHS president and CEO.

OGHS collaborated with Cancer Center of Acadiana, owned by Lafayette General Health in November of 2015, and they will continue to provide medical oncology and hematology services for the new comprehensive cancer center.

The use of modern technology is nothing new to OGHS. In 2017 it was listed for the seventh time among the “most wired” health systems in the United States. The citation by the American Hospital Association notes that “Most Wired hospitals are using smart phones, telehealth and remote monitoring to create more ways for patients to access health care services and capture health information.”

“The Most Wired hospitals are using every available technology option to create more ways to reach their patients in order to provide access to care,” said AHA president and CEO Rick Pollack. “They are transforming care delivery, investing in new delivery models in order to improve quality, provide access and control costs.”

Jared Lormand, OGHS chief information officer, said keeping up with state of the art technology is a constant goal while the increasing sophistication of patient care “underscores the need for secure patient information exchange.”

“Hospitals have increased their use of sophisticated IT monitoring systems to detect patient privacy breaches, monitor for malicious activities or policy violations and produce real-time analysis of security alerts,” the AHA noted.

In Eunice, Mercy and Acadian’s Overall Hospital Quality 5-star Rating is the highest possible performance rating and puts Mercy and Acadian in the top 9 percent of all hospitals in the U.S. with respect to patient safety and the overall patient experience.

“We are incredibly proud of this achievement,” Scott Smith, CEO of Mercy Regional Medical Center and Acadian Medical Center. “We attribute our success in the program to our hospital-wide commitment to quality.”

Three things to know about this story:

  1. The 11,000 square-foot Opelousas General Centre de la Vie Our offers highly advanced cancer treatment at a single location.
  2. Mercy Regional Medical Center and it’s Eunice campus, Acadian Medical Center, have been awarded a top 5-star rating by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
  3. LSU-Eunice, the South Louisiana Community College, and the parish school system have taken note of those opportunities and are expanding their courses in medical technology.      
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