Ochsner St. Mary has J&J vaccine; teachers will get shots

Ochsner St. Mary’s initial shipment of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been earmarked for teachers, who can receive the vaccine Saturday during the hospital’s Teacher Vaccination Day.
CEO Fernis LeBlanc told St. Mary Parish Hospital Service District No. 2 during its monthly meeting Wednesday that the hospital received about 200 doses that will be administered during Saturday’s event. The vaccinations will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
He said the hospital is working with the public and private schools to facilitate this event.
“We’re working with them to get our teachers vaccinated as fast as we can,” LeBlanc said.
He said that if doses of the new vaccine remain following the event, they will be offered to others eligible.
To sign up, teachers and other school staff members should schedule an appointment on their MyOchsner account, or they can set an account up at myochsner.org. They also can call 844-888-2772 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Overall in its vaccination efforts, LeBlanc said the hospital has distributed more than 4,000 vaccines, and none have been wasted.
“We’re working hard on getting this stuff out as fast and efficient as we can,” he said. “We just can’t do enough. I wish we could do more with the vaccines. We’re just waiting on more supply right now.”
LeBlanc said throughout the Ochsner Health system, more than 200,000 vaccines, all the Pfizer-BioNTech, have been administered.
Much of LeBlanc’s report touted the many improvements Ochsner has made to its Morgan City location.
He said they have upgraded several major mechanical systems that for years had been neglected. They also replaced the roof on the seventh floor where LeBlanc said there had been leaks.
“It was impacting operations in the hospital in terms of our BHU and just it really limited what we were able to do in that unit,” LeBlanc said of the hospital’s Behavioral Health Unit.
Other repairs on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors have been made as well as upgrades to the hospital’s pharmacy.
Other work of note were a remodeling project to add a wound care unit on the fifth floor to offer outpatient services, the hospital’s OBGYN clinic renovations, which are ongoing in different phases, and renovations to the emergency department. LeBlanc said an option now is available in the emergency department for patients who are not as seriously ill to get them service quicker.
“So it’s better, safer, faster for them, instead of getting into a mix with the sicker patients in the back,” LeBlanc said.
Upgrades also have been made to the hospital’s security, increasing the staff to 10 members, who all have backgrounds in law enforcement or military. More than 300 security cameras have been added to the hospital, too.
LeBlanc said the hospital has recruited a new general surgeon, something the hospital has been trying to do for years. The new surgeon, who will arrive in August, holds a Yale undergraduate degree and currently is the chief resident at LSU Shreveport.
He said it’s major for the hospital and community to be able to bring this new doctor to Morgan City.
An endocrinologist also will arrive in Morgan City in August. LeBlanc said he doesn’t think this type of doctor was present in Morgan City before.
“They’re in need everywhere, not just Morgan City, but everywhere,” LeBlanc said.
He said the endocrinologist will work with a diabetes education program, which LeBlanc said is a big need in the area.
The hospital also hopes to have its first community health fair in April or May.
Also Wednesday, the board learned from Colin Seibert of Seibert Lewis Wealth Group in Houma that they have just under $2.4 million in their investment portfolio. He said discarding deposits and withdrawals, the district has earned 2.64% in interest from March 2020 to March 2021. He noted the district is limited by law to invest in a “very, very narrow range of things.”
During the last year, Seibert said the district had withdrawals totaling $296,837, the third such year it has had much higher than normal withdrawals due to legal issues that now have been cleared up. He said they deposited $150,557 in the account during the last year, too.
Seibert said the district’s expenses will be back to normal this year, and he anticipated they would see approximately $118,000 in growth this year.