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The state’s Department of Health and Hospitals chief said he would a meeting between Teche Action Clinic and Chabert Medical Center to discern whether Teche can provide some OB/GYN services to the area’s uninsured after funding woes forced Chabert to discontinue maternity and newborn services earlier this month.
Bruce Greenstein offered to set up a meeting between the two entities after a two-hour meet and greet with Teche CEO Gary Wiltz, who said Teche is “definitely open for discussion” regarding an agreement with Chabert that would allow Teche to operate inside the hospital while the organization’s Terrebonne Parish facilities are constructed.
Teche does not yet have the room at the organization’s Tunnel Blvd or Dulac sites to offer the services independently, Wiltz said. Last month, however, Teche Action Board, the parent group of the organization, announced plans for a $4.3 million construction project this spring, to build new facilities for both of its Terrebonne Parish centers. Wiltz said the new Tunnel Blvd site should open across the parking lot from the State Social Security Office within six months.
The LSU Health Care System, which operates the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma, discontinued maternity and newborn services on March 2nd.
Teche Action Clinic operates two health care centers in Terrebonne Parish, one in Morgan City, one in Franklin, a school-based clinic in Baldwin, and a center in Pierre Part, along with two other clinics in St. John Parish. Plans are in the works to open two more clinics later this fall in Lafourche Parish, one in Thibodaux and the other in Galliano.
Roughly 48 percent of its patients are uninsured; however, they must pay some sort of sliding fee scale fee for services, based on household income.
“Teche Action Clinic is doing the kind of work that I wish all similar agencies would do across the state,” Greenstein said. “I’m surprised at how sophisticated the organization is, and how well integrated it is, in the community it serves.”
Greenstein visited the non-profit health care center’s headquarters in Franklin, at the request of state Rep. Sam Jones.
“We’re an institution here,” Jones told Greenstein. “What we do with the outcome of primary care on the front end is a big savings to the federal, state and frankly private health costs. … We think we’re a part of the solution. Help us to help you.”
Greenstein lauded Teche’s methods of conducting its business and criticized the LSU Health Care System for not dedicating enough time to community affairs.
“The cuts to OBGYN services are another example of LSU not acting from a community level, in a way that the community was ready to take action. This created fear and anxiety in the minds of many,” he said.
The St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department, in need of a provider to handle maternity and newborn services for eight inmates who were patients at Chabert, contacted Wiltz to see what assistance Teche could provide, he said. “We’re going to sign an agreement with them next week, so when those babies are due, our physicians will be able to go to the hospital to deliver them and provide service for the baby and the mother,” he said.
During Greenstein’s tour, Wiltz released a study by Capital Link on Teche Action Clinic’s economic impact.
Capital Link is a national non-profit organization that provides high-quality, affordable, innovative advisory and lending services related to planning and financing capital projects.
Wiltz said the study, conducted in 2010, showed Teche having injected $9.4 million of operating and expenditures directly into the local economy. “These expenditures produced additional indirect and induced economic activity of $2.9 million for an overall impact of $12.3 million into the economy,” the study reads
Wiltz said the study concluded, “This economic impact analysis clearly demonstrates that as a result of the combined effect of its multiple roles as a service provider, employer, and local business, Teche Action Clinic has a significant community and economic development role. To invest in Teche is to invest in the economic development of its community, country and state.”
State DHH Legislative Asst. Christine Peck, state Rep. Sam Jones, Teche CEO Dr. Gary Wiltz, Teche Pharmacist Dennis Mestayer and DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein view the Teche Action Clinic Pharmacy’s $140,000 robotic pharmacist dispenser.
