Moss Memorial closure would hurt community
Published 8:30 am Thursday, March 31, 2016
The proposed closure of W.O. Moss Memorial Health Clinic is the second hit to the health community of Southwest Louisiana in two weeks.
Jeff Reynolds, undersecretary for DHH, told a House budget committee on Tuesday that Louisiana likely can’t afford to operate all of its privatized LSU hospitals as it tries to figure out how to close a $750 million state budget shortfall for the financial year that begins July 1.
One of the clinics affected would be Moss Memorial.
The news comes less than two weeks after it was announced Calcasieu Parish ranked 24th in overall health statewide, accoring to the 2015 America’s Health Rankings report.
The report used more than 30 factors that affect health in its ranking — like exercise, obesity, smoking, education and income.
The average obesity percentage for adults in Calcasieu is lower than the statewide average, but higher than the national average, the report found.
Of the five Southwest Louisiana parishes, Calcasieu has the highest percentage of adults who smoke (25 percent), higher than the state and national averages. The parish also ranked high in violent crime and income inequality, according to the report.
Tarek Polite, director of human services for the Calcasieu Police Jury, said at the time of the report’s release that the findings are necessary to understand the health of residents in the region.
“As our community continues to grow and expand, it’s very important that as our community prospers, that our citizens also enjoy good health in order to enjoy that prosperity,” he said.
But can we really ensure our community is in better health if we’re losing health services?
For the 2015 America’s Health Rankings report, Dr. B.J. Foch, the state Department of Health and Hospitals’ medical director, said Louisiana’s overall ranking was 50th — down two spots from last year.
Over the past five years, the number of children in poverty increased 73 percent, while public health funding has decreased 33 percent, Foch said.
The closure of Moss will only worsen that.
Moss, then a charity hospital, entered into a public-private partnership with Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in 2013 to preserve patient services for the city’s poor. As part of the agreement, all of Moss’s inpatient and emergency services were moved to Lake Charles Memorial’s Oak Park campus. The clinic provides asthma, gynecology, hypertension, infectious disease and minor procedures and chemotherapy, dermatology, ophthalmology, rheumatology and pharmacy services.
If funding is cut, there’s a strong possibility that all of that goes away.
Moss Memorial Health Clinic, 1000 Walters St., Lake Charles, Louisiana (Rick Hickman / American Press)
