The board of Hospital Service District No. 2, which owns the Morgan City hospital operated under lease by Ochsner Health, will decide next month whether to ask voters for a property tax “to assist with the renovation, repair, maintenance and preservation of our facility.”
The 9-mill tax, which would appear on ballots in East St. Mary on Dec. 7, would be used for projects including sealing the 44-year-old building to keep out moisture; installing insulated and storm-resistant windows; upgrading the heating and air conditioning; renovating patient rooms and waiting areas; and improving equipment.
The hospital’s role extends beyond health care to quality of life and economic development, according to a statement issued by the board after Wednesday’s district board meeting.
The board announced its intent to call for the election at the July 3 meeting. The statement makes no direct mention of the biggest recent controversy involving Ochsner St. Mary.
That’s the April 1, 2023, withdrawal of nonemergency obstetrical services from the local hospital as part of a consolidation of labor and delivery care in Raceland. But there are hints the tax and obstetrics services issue aren’t completely unrelated.
“We also want to be best positioned to handle the nationwide provider shortage,” the statement said. “We want to maintain as many as many service lines as possible locally. We will use some of these funds to support scholarships for local students to return to our community.”
After the meeting, board Chairman Dr. William Cefalu said the district continues to talk with Ochsner about bringing labor and delivery back to Morgan City.
“Obstetrics care in our community remains a priority,” Cefalu said.
The scholarships may help alleviate shortages in nursing and other staff areas, Cefalu said.
“The issue here for quite some time has been that the people who actually provide the care is where the bottleneck is,” Cefalu said.
The focus of the statement was on need to care for the building and the justification for the millage.
While Ochsner Health operates the hospital, the statement said, it’s owned by district.
“Thus, as the owner, we must be committed to seeing the building repaired, maintained and preserved for future generations,” the statement said
The district has entered a cooperative endeavor agreement with Ochsner so that mutually agreed upon repairs and equipment can be financed.
“Local care saves lives and helps citizens to have a good quality of life,” the state said. “It also is an essential community resource for economic development. Local healthcare is on top of the checklist of services that businesses and people use when looking to locate to an area.”
The district hasn’t imposed a property tax for more than two decades.
The statement noted that Bayou Bend Health System in Franklin, operated by Hospital Service District No. 1, has a property tax of 13.1 mills. Thirty-one Louisiana hospital service districts are supported by public money.
The 9-mill tax would cost the owner of an average-priced home about $45 a year, the statement said. The tax would raise about $3.4 million a year and would be good for 10 years.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Ochsner St. Mary Community Outreach Coordinator Dwan Naverre came in for praise after facilitating a variety of community events.
Those events have included wellness seminars, an Easter egg hunt that attracted more than 100 children, an arthritis seminar, a “Breakfast With the Docs” for 40 students interested in allied health care professions, diabetes screenings for Council on Aging clients, a program in which seven high school students spend part of their summer at the hospital to learn about allied health professions.