Ochsner St. Mary due for a new look

As work on the physical functionality of Ochsner St. Mary continues, members of the Hospital Service District No. 2 board on Wednesday turned its attention to what people will see when they enter the Morgan City hospital.
It turns out that a hospital’s physical appearance and its functionality aren’t entirely separate matters.
The board adopted a motion by member Clarence Robinson to adopt a plan for architectural changes at the facility, which the district owns and is operated under lease by Ochsner Health.
Barry Lann and Emily Stewart presented the Grace Design Studio plan for alterations to the hospital’s first floor. The plan is designed to eliminate what Lann called bottlenecks at the main entrance and emergency room entrance, creating a flow that gets people where they need to go.
In the Grace Design plan, people walking into the main entry will be greeted by a curved reception desk. Around the desk to the right will be registration stations for paperwork.
A left turn leads people to a hall leading to the radiology department and the lab.
The emergency room entrance will lead through a climate-controlled vestibule leading to an area for triage, the process of assigning priority to patients based on their medical needs.
Also on the first floor, a largely unused area of office space will be converted into public meeting rooms.
The food service area will get badly needed replacements for the ceiling and flooring.
Meanwhile, work continues to deal with the effects of age and Hurricane Francine. The exterior of the building was sealed last year, giving the hospital a brighter appearance.
Other work completed or planned includes installation of rooftop units that will provide positive pressure in the hospital; an upgrade to two staff elevators; and a new heating and air conditioning system.
The work on the hospital is being financed with a 9-mill property tax approved by voters in December 2024.
Board counsel William Bourgeois said Wednesday that collections through February, covering the first year of receipts from the 9-mill tax, came to about $3.2 million.
The ballot language estimated the proceeds of the tax to be about $3.4 million. Entities that receive property tax proceeds, like working people, have to pay withholding, in this case to various pension funds.