Governor, lawmakers say Teche Regional deal is all but done

Superficially, nothing much changed Wednesday at Teche Regional Medical Center's Meditation Garden.

St. Mary Hospital Service District No. 2's board has been saying for months that a deal is imminent to put Ochsner Health System in charge of running Teche Regional. Officials Wednesday said the same thing. But this time, the word came from Gov. John Bel Edwards, key lawmakers, and Ochsner's president and CEO.

"I'm 100 percent confident (the deal) will be completed," said top Ochsner exec Warner Thomas at a gathering at the 167-bed Morgan City hospital.

That's reassurance for a hospital staff that has lived with uncertainty for months, and for a parish that no longer seems in danger of losing one of its two hospitals.

LifePoint Health of Nashville, Tennessee, has operated the hospital since taking over a 40-year lease with the district nearly 15 years ago. Last year, LifePoint announced that it was pulling out of its Louisiana operations.

The search for a successor focused quickly on Ochsner even as negotiations freeing LifePoint from the lease went on. The preliminary date to have new agreements in place passed on New Year's Eve with no new deals.

One of Wednesday's speakers, state Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said the uncertainty over Teche Regional's future happened during an economic downturn.

"The anxiety in our community is something we don't need right now," Jones said.

But after a meeting about the hospital, Jones called the governor to fill him in. A few days later, Jones said, Edwards' reply came: "We're going to get this thing."

"Without the governor stepping in," said state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Frankliin, "this would probably not be done and we'd be talking about closing the hospital, which none of us can imagine. A community is not a community without a hospital and the health care services."

"We haven't had a hospital close in Louisiana," Edwards told the audience. "We want to make sure that continues."