Hospital board may reconsider tax proposition

The Hospital Service District No. 2 board could decide Wednesday whether it will remove a property tax proposal from the ballot. The tax was proposed as a way to bring labor and delivery services back to Ochsner St. Mary.
The board's meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Emergency Operations Center.

At issue is a proposed 5.5-mill property tax in the district, which runs from Calumet to Amelia. The tax would raise an estimated $2 million to support obstetrics at Ochsner St. Mary, which the district owns and which Ochsner operates under lease.

A second proposition would rededicate $719,000 from a tax no longer collected. Both sets of funds are to be used for physician recruitment and other costs associated with bringing obstetrical services back to the hospital.

On May 3, the board voted to have the propositions placed on the Oct. 14 ballot.

At a special meeting July 11, the district's board announced it would allow an additional two weeks for talks with Ochsner on reinstituting labor and delivery at the Morgan City hospital. With no agreement, the board said, it would remove the tax from the ballot.

The two weeks ended last week. There has been no public announcement about a written agreement between the district and Ochsner.
Ochsner announced in March that it would end labor and delivery services on April 1.

The company, the state's largest private-sector health care provider, said its decision was based on an aging population and the number of women of child-bearing age, and what it characterizes as a relatively small number of births at the hospital.

Ochsner is consolidating its Bayou Region labor and delivery services at Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland.

Ochsner St. Mary had only one obstetrician on its staff.

The end of obstetrical service led to publicly expressed concerns about the need to drive 20 to 50 minutes to reach another labor and delivery hospital. The concerns also centered on the availability of emergency obstetrical care in Morgan City when mothers or babies are in distress or can't wait for a half-hour road trip.