[StBernard] LRA funding for St. Bernard Parish Hospital

[Westley Annis]

State of Louisiana Approves $2 Million for St. Bernard Parish Hospital

 

BATON ROUGE, La. - The state of Louisiana has approved the release of $2
million from a total of $35 million in recovery funds earmarked for the St.
Bernard Parish Hospital, allowing the Parish Government to access federal
Community Development Block Grant funds needed to return critical health
care services to the parish.

 

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the citizens of St. Bernard Parish were served
by a 180-bed, privately owned and operated hospital. After the storm, the
owner decided not to rebuild the destroyed medical institution - leaving the
parish without a functioning hospital.

 

In response, the parish created the Hospital Service District of St. Bernard
Parish, which will build a new hospital to restore delivery of healthcare
services to the parish and the surrounding communities of Plaquemines
Parish, New Orleans east and the Ninth Ward. In addition, the new hospital
will help rebuild the specialty medical services sector of this area, thus
encouraging the return of residents to these communities. 

 

The $2 million in this first approval of CDBG funds will be used to plan for
and design the hospital and ready it for construction. 

 

When complete, the St. Bernard Parish Hospital will provide 32 in-patient
beds and eight ICU beds; a surgery suite with seven operating and procedural
rooms; an imaging suite with nine rooms; an emergency services suite of
eight rooms; and a pharmacy, laboratory, dietary room and sterilization
room. 

 

The project, located on 10 acres of land between St. Bernard Highway and
East Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette, will cost a combined $58 million in
state and federal funds, of which $35 million will be CDBG disaster recovery
funds and $17 million will be provided through the state's Capital Outlay
program. The hospital is designed so that additional rooms and services can
be added in the future as the area's population grows.

 

LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said, "The healthcare systems in the
parts of our state hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina are struggling to
recover in the face of staggering obstacles: destroyed facilities, loss of
medical personnel and insufficient capital. We can't expect to rebuild our
communities without replacing the infrastructure that supports our citizens.
Supplying ready access to medical care is a primary recovery need, and I'm
pleased that state and federal recovery dollars are being spent on a new
hospital in St. Bernard Parish."

 

St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro Jr. said, "This new
full-service hospital located in the heart of the parish will re-establish a
healthcare delivery system that's needed to serve St. Bernard Parish and
adjacent communities. This is an urgent need, as residents now must travel
to distant health facilities in adjoining parishes to receive medical care."

 

The funding comes from the Long Term Community Recovery Program, a pool of
federal CDBG money set aside by the Louisiana Recovery Authority and Office
of Community Development to help local governments rebuild and implement
long-term recovery plans.

 

The state's LTCR program supports implementation of local governments'
long-term recovery plans in the most heavily impacted communities in the
state. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
approved LRA's request to reallocate $500 million in CDBG dollars to the
program, bringing to $700 million the total amount of long-term recovery
funding available to the parishes. Funds are distributed among the parishes
through the LRA/Office of Community Development according to a formula based
on estimated housing and infrastructure damages inflicted by hurricanes
Katrina and Rita. 

 

In total, the LRA has allocated $91,185,319 of CDBG funding to St. Bernard
Parish Government for LTCR projects. 

 

Created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita in 2005,
the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) is the coordinating and planning body
leading the most extensive rebuilding effort in American history. The
central point for hurricane recovery in Louisiana, the LRA works closely
with the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
(GOHSEP) and partners with state and federal agencies to oversee more than
$20 billion worth of programs, speed the pace of rebuilding, remove hurdles
and red tape and ensure that Louisiana recovers safer and stronger than
before. 

 

For more information about the LRA and its 17-member board, visit
lra.louisiana.gov.

 

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