LSU criticized for hospital cuts
Louisiana’s health chief Bruce Greenstein on Tuesday blasted LSU for “irresponsible” cuts to its hospital operations and lack of planning to offset their impact.
Greenstein also said LSU overspending — not Gov. Bobby Jindal’s midyear budget cuts — is responsible for the reductions.
“They got their budget and a whole lot more money,” Greenstein said. “They were spending at a rate that would have put them above it. We all have to live within our budgets.”
LSU’s top officials refused Tuesday to respond to Greenstein’s accusations.
LSU System Vice President Fred Cerise did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday. LSU System officials also declined comment Tuesday through spokesman Charles Zewe.
Greenstein’s comments came in the wake of LSU’s Health Care Services Division announcing its plan to close a $29 million budget hole between now and the June 30 end of the current state fiscal year.
The plan includes the elimination of 645 job positions across HCSD’s south Louisiana hospitals, including those in Baton Rouge and Lafayette; closure of pediatric clinics; and reductions in mental health and obstetrics care as well as other medical services.
Earlier, Cerise complained that Greenstein’s health agency is taking money the hospitals generated, leaving it without sufficient dollars to cover the cost of care delivered. He said the hospitals have been cut $100 million over the past three years.
Greenstein said LSU’s HCSD, which operates seven hospitals, got its $780 million budget, plus an extra $21 million.
Legislators and other public officials from mayors to councilmen have been hammering state officials, including Greenstein, in recent days — upset over cuts in hospital services.
“It’s caused a great deal of unnecessary anxiety,” Greenstein said.
Greenstein said LSU did not do a sufficient job of bringing in “local stakeholders and local providers” or involving the state Department of Health and Hospitals to help find solutions to potential gaps created by service reductions.
“When they released their cuts (last Friday), they did not release a plan,” Greenstein said.
Greenstein said DHH’s medical director and behavior health chief were in New Orleans on Tuesday meeting with mental health officials to work on ways to make up for LSU’s closure of some psychiatric treatment beds.
He said he is “enthused” that LSU joined in that discussion.
Greenstein said LSU’s plan called for discontinuance of obstetrics and neonatal intensive care services at University Medical Center in Lafayette.
“That sounds bad but in reality they are delivering 30 to 35 babies a month. That’s a low volume to maintain. Almost everyone is covered by health insurance, and other hospitals will perform the service,” Greenstein said.
Greenstein said LSU failed to communicate those facts.
In a letter to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Greenstein wrote that he shared Landrieu’s concerns about “lack of thoughtful planning” in reductions in mental health and other services.
“The list of cuts released by LSU is irresponsible and shows a lack of consideration of the impact this has on communities. These may not be the most logical and least painful ways to reduce their budget,” Greenstein wrote.