2009: A Year to Believe In

As we reflect on the activity of this past year, we are humbled by the recognition our team received. Our continued commitment
to being better tomorrow than we are today is Everyday Excellence. This principle, along with delivering the Spirit of Healing,
guides us forward. We’re pleased to share our most recent accomplishments with you as we look ahead to another year of service.

Being our best earns us the trust and loyalty of our community. Our mission is about people. We don’t take that for granted.   

• Our Lady of the Lake received the 2008 Level III Louisiana Performance Excellence Award given by the Louisiana Quality Foundation. This is the highest honor awarded by  this organization and earned for outstanding results based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.
  
• Our Lady of the Lake received accreditation for its Chest Pain Center from the National Society of Chest Pain Centers. It is the only Cycle III Accredited Chest Pain Center in the state. This recognition means that when patients come to Our Lady of the Lake with chest pain, they will receive care that meets or exceeds national quality of care measures in cardiac medicine.
  
• Louisiana Healthcare Review presented Our Lady of the Lake with the Gold Level Quality Award for successfully implementing quality initiatives and improving patient care for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.
  
• The hospital was re-designated as a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care after meeting rigorous criteria in heart care.
  
• Our Lady of the Lake began construction of the St. Mary’s Tower addition and opened five new state-of the-art operating rooms. Three are dedicated to complex spine surgery and two are outfitted with specific pediatric equipment.
  
• Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group added several specialists to its network and opened primary care clinics in Zachary, Plaquemine and Denham Springs.
  
• The Respiratory Therapy Department was recognized as Hospital of the Year by Louisiana Society for Respiratory Care and Department of the Year by Advance for Respiratory Care Magazine.
  
• Our Lady of the Lake added physicians to the Children’s Hospital pediatric care team, including two pediatric intensivists, two pediatric hospitalists, pediatric nephrologists, a pediatric pulmonologist and several in the pediatric emergency room.
  
• To support graduate medical education in Louisiana, the hospital sought and received approval for its own pediatric residency. The first class of eight residents will begin in July, 2010.
  
• Discussions began and continue with LSU for a first-of-its-kind collaboration in which Baton Rouge based physicians in training would complete their clinical rotations at Our Lady of the Lake. When finalized, the implementation is two to three years into the future.
  
• The Cancer Program of Our Lady of the Lake and Mary Bird Perkins continued progress as one of only 14 national sites selected to participate in the National Community Cancer Center Pilot, an exclusive study of the National Cancer Institute. In addition, The Cancer Program:
  • Was awarded a five-year grant from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida which provides for advanced genomic matching of tissue samples in order to provide the most effective pharmaceutical cancer treatment.
  • Established its first multi-disciplinary disease site team, bringing a new level of collaboration and treatment for colorectal cancer to our region.
  • Earned three-year approval with commendation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.
    
• To address needs which might otherwise go untreated, Our Lady of the Lake successfully piloted a project with the Capital Area Human Services District to provide on-site primary care to the chronically mentally ill using the hospital’s mobile telehealth van.
  
• As a founding partner, Our Lady of the Lake facilitated the creation and launch of East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden’s Healthy City Initiative, called HealthyBR.
  
• Our Lady of the Lake College was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll and helped nearly 1500 students receive over $8.5 million in financial aid.
  
• Our Lady of the Lake was the first local hospital to pilot BR-Med Connect, an EMS telehealth program that provides a video and data link that utilizes high quality cameras, advanced cardiac monitors and other diagnostic devices to transmit patient information between EMS and our ER.
  
• Over 100 Our Lady of the Lake managers joined together to paint and landscape in a day-long outreach project at Wildwood Elementary, the hospital’s adopt-a-school. Year-round Reading Friends have helped improve reading skills in all grades.

Thank you for believing in us. It is our privilege to be of service.