Our Views: Better options for Woman’s

Baton Rouge isn’t the friendliest city for pedestrians, and for poor women who must travel to the new Woman’s Hospital for health services, getting to the hospital on foot can be not only inconvenient, but dangerous.

That’s why we hope that local mass transit and health services officials can find a way to help these poor women get to the hospital more easily.

Since September, poor and uninsured women formerly serviced by an LSU health clinic have had to travel to the new Woman’s Hospital campus at Airline Highway and Pecue Lane instead. The clinic closed as part of the state’s plan to shift more health care services for the poor away from state facilities to private institutions. Local bus service can get poor women affected by the new policy only within a mile and a half of the new Woman’s campus. Walking the remaining distance presents a formidable obstacle course, as state Rep. Regina Barrow, a Baton Rouge Democrat, demonstrated by walking the route herself recently.

Patients with Medicaid or some other government-sponsored insurance can get government-sponsored transportation to and from medical appointments. But poor parents of children in the Woman’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, for very ill or premature infants don’t qualify for such transportation, Woman’s Hospital CEO Terri Fontenot said.

Barrow added that medical transportation services don’t uniformly cover all Medicaid patients.

That means a significant hardship for a number of women who must now walk a significant distance or depend on transportation from friends and family to access Woman’s Hospital’s services. We’re especially troubled by the thought that any mother would have to walk this distance in order to see an infant being treated within the NICU. That’s a big burden to bear, especially when one’s child is confronting a health crisis.

We don’t know the number of mothers who face such a hike to the hospital, but even one is too many.

We hope that public health officials can find more reasonable transportation options for women who are now forced to reach Woman’s on foot. The gleaming new hospital boasts an array of impressive services, but patrons shouldn’t have to risk their lives to access such health care.

Comments

1) Comment by phil - 02/02/2013

Maybe other hospitals need to start delivering babies and offering the services that Women's does. Sounds like one problem is the entire area of BR is dependent on one hospital for those types of services. What about the General in the downtown area? Sounds to me like we might have more that just a bus transportation problem in BR.

2) Comment by ScotB - 01/02/2013

Women's Hospital is a healthcare facility. They care about improving people's heatlh. Have you seen some of the parents in the waiting room? Some walking will do them a lot of good. Is a mile and half that far? It should take about 40 minutes at a moderate pace and red lights. So maybe Women's is just trying to get more people to walk more? And besides, why is the government always the answer? Don't any of these people have a friend that can help them in a medical emergency?

3) Comment by Whatnow - 01/02/2013

twinkie1cat, I find it very strange that the influx of black families from Katrina had a choice at the time to move to East Baton Rouge or Ascension or anywhere else for that matter. Overnight we had dozens of new black subdivisions pop up and new families moving into existing subdivisions. They are very nice neighborhoods and here in Prairieville they go to Dutchtown. Most of them that I've met during sporting events at Dutchtown came here for the excellent schools and our exceptional law enforcement. Our parish is not "lily white" nor just racist Republicans. I know you keep repeating that fallacy, but saying something over and over does not make it true. A while back you posted that you had a job problem in Ascension Parish and I do believe it has skewered your opinion and made you biased against the whole parish. That would be like me saying that since there are some racists in East Baton Rouge Parish then the whole parish is racist. And I would never do that. I have more class than that and I would back it up with facts. I suppose that to some people, belittling others makes them feel better even to the point of being a racist.

4) Comment by yardeggs - 01/02/2013

brhope: I did not generalize about retrofitting. But for Woman's Hospital specifically, it was more cost effective in the long run to build a new facility than it would be to try to update the old one. This includes new healthcare information technology, medical equipment, imaging devices, and security for patients in this increasingly crazy city. Not to mention expansion to accommodate the growing population. I can't imagine that trying to add on to the old building would have been a better solution in any way. Considering that our physicians were kept regularly updated on progress and changes during planning, construction, and moving, I don't believe I'm "way off". phil: The only local hospital that accepts Medicaid for deliveries is Woman's. And most of the physician's who deliver at Woman's have practices nearby, if not on-campus. This allows a physician to deliver a patient and return to the clinic quickly. About 80% of the private physicians who deliver at Woman's are located in the Physician's Office Building attached to the hospital. With the LSU clinic relocated into the hospital itself, that's pretty much all of them.

5) Comment by phil - 01/02/2013

I am a little confused. Are the only doctors that treat pregnant women located inside the Women's Hospital? If not, then it seems as if women could chose a doctor closer to home so they will not have so far to ride a bus or other type of transportation. Then I also have to ask - will it take an expectant mother 9 months just to figure out how to get a ride to the hospital for when the baby arrives? Perhaps I am missing something here, and if so, please let me know. I do not think anyone expects that a woman actually in labor will ever have to ride a bus to the hospital anyway. If so, maybe we would need to pay for CATS to have doctors on every bus who can deliver a baby. I personally think that since Women's Hospital is a private hospital they can move wherever they choose to - even out of EBR Parish. I DO think it is bad planning for EKL Hospital to be closed and now all folks in North BR evidently will need to go all the way to the Lake Hospital. However, is the Lake already on a bus route or not? I think it is. This seems to me to be somewhat of a made-up issue created just to get more future tax dollars for CATS now that I really think more about it some more. I will be glad to hear other opinions, though. Also I know there are exceptions, like those mentioned in this article, but unfortunately I do not think taxpayers can afford to pay for bus service for every exception that exists in this world. Perhaps an alternate solution, other than just expanding public bus service, is one answer. Perhaps the hospital could provide a van to the nearest bus stop to pick up the women, as needed. After all, the women should be able to call on those free cell phones (possibly even while on the bus) and let the hospital know that they need a ride from the bus stop to the hospital. This is just one possible solution.

6) Comment by brhope - 01/02/2013

yardeggs_ Im not going to go into too much detail, but your statement on building a new hospital is better that retro fitting the old one for the new medical records and wiring. Well you are WAY OFF. That has NOTHING to do with it. It is actually cheaper to retro fit than build.

7) Comment by Chucky - 01/02/2013

The "if it only helps one" argument, As i read the post i get the impression that all new and expected mothers in need of welfare transportation (the poor) live on a bus line that serve EKL.

8) Comment by Duckyluve - 01/02/2013

At what point are people expected to do for themselves and not have the government figure everything out for them?

9) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

twinkie1cat , Dutchtown , Central and Zachary are very white , they are also A schools . a former student(black) moved into Copper Mill near Zachary 2 years ago , because of the schools . he's had no problems , and likes where he lives .

10) Comment by yardeggs - 31/01/2013

Twinkie: I work for a large women's healthcare clinic that likely performs better than half the deliveries at Woman's including a large percentage of Medicaid patients. I can assure you, the hospital and physician's offices did not go to the enormous effort and expense to address parking needs. Under the new healthcare mandates, all medical facilities are required to move to electronic medical records within a specific time frame. Woman's Hospital evaluated the cost of retrofitting the old campus with the wiring and technology needed to meet these mandates versus building a new facility, and the new facility was the better choice. If you've been to the new campus, then you know that parking for patient's is actually worse. There are more complaints now than ever. No covered parking. Very few sidewalks. Parking is much further away from buildings. Not to mention people getting lost trying to figure out what is what. Woman's does a fantastic job of providing care for the population being discussed. But it's NOT their job to provide transportation. The city-parish knew about the move for nearly as long as the hospital did. Patients don't use the transportation provided by Medicaid...they certainly aren't going to pay extra for a shuttle. And CATS can't seem to get it together enough to deal with the routes they have, much less organize a special one.

11) Comment by Mr. T - 31/01/2013

Woman's Hospital should have found a site with better access. We taxpayers are subsidizing their cheapo site selection by having to build roads and run buses to it.

12) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

Nimby: I too taught for nearly 30 years, although not here for the most part. When I heard about the bus transfers I nearly fell out because that is the most stupid and dangerous procedure I have ever come across. They even do it to special education students as long as they don't need a lift bus. I had a little guy who could not talk on one of those buses and always wondered what would happen to him if he got on the wrong bus, lost, or forgotten. He did have the sense to wear his identification, but his family did not speak or understand English yet as they were refugees from a very bad distatorship. I would not want a young child or a disabled one involved in a bus system like that and I don't know why the parents did not raise a whole bunch of sand and get it changed. But moving because of it? That kind of "can't fight city hall" mentality is why we still have Jindal in office. the whole system seems to be run stupidly here with things like putting middle school students at a high school (Istrouma). Even if you have a separate building you do not mix middle school girls and high school boys. Suddenly the girls find boys their own age "immature" and go after the older ones. But , once again the parents are not raising cain...... However I do question your white flight thing involving all races because both Ascension and Livingston Parishes as well as Central are very white, although a church friend whose mother works in Zachary says that school system not so much. When I worked at Dutchtown High only a very few of the black children were not M to M from Donaldsonville and they had roots in East Ascension.

13) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

Bourbon: It can be worked with the pioneers and the original residents, especially homeowners who have been in the neighborhood for decades living side by side. It usually makes everyone happy when the prostitutes and drug dealers are run out (except for them of course). However, ordinances need to be in place early on so that the long term residents don't have their taxes increase so much that they cannot afford them. This is a problem with gentrification. But the pioneers often help elderly homeowners spruce up their houses and yards if needed.

14) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

Yardeggs: Remember that it was only this summer that Womens relocated. Prior to that, it was very simple to get there on the bus. Who wouldn't want to go to a nice private hospital if they could get there. My understanding from some nurses who worked at Women's was that the move was largely because they were landlocked and needed more parking. It was ok that they moved. It is not ok that the Republicans refuse to pay for decent public transportation to the the new facility. In Atlanta, there are some high population facilities, such as 6-Flags that are not located in the areas served by Marta. They have a special bus that the people pay extra for that serves these facilities.

15) Comment by Whatnow - 31/01/2013

Republican abandonment caused the area to become distressed? Gee, I thought that area always voted Democrat. Isn't the mayor a Democrat? Geez, it's always someone else's fault with Democrats.

16) Comment by yardeggs - 31/01/2013

Woman's Hospital move has absolutely nothing to do with politics. It would have been more expensive to update the old facility to accomodate new technology and an increasing patient census than it was to build the new facility. The location of the hospital has nothing to do with race. The Earl K Long population is not the only, or even larges,t population served by Woman's Hospital. They tried to locate it centrally to their population, but that was also limited by the availability of land. The labor and delivery unit at Earl K Long closed because their patient census was so low, it wasn't cost effective to keep it open. They delivered less than one baby a day. Most Medicaid and unassigned patients were already delivering at Woman's.

17) Comment by bourbon-soda - 31/01/2013

If it becomes gentrified, where will the poor residents go? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gentrification

18) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

twinkie1cat , I taught almost 30 years in the EBR system , Baker , Glen Oaks , Istrouma . so called white flight involved all races seeking better schools for their children . parents did not like their kids being shipped out of their neighborhood to a staging area , transferred to another bus to arrive at a school across the parish . and the following year a different school . some people are slow to accept change , no one likes it forced on them . and republicans are not the devil .

19) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

NImby I question this. Nothing has been done to discourage white flight in Baton Rouge and we know that the places they went to are now dominated by Republicans (Livingston and Ascension Parishes for example as well as Central and Zachary.) Therefore, Republican abandonment caused the area to become distressed as Republicans don't want to live around people of other races. However, the area you referenced is still quite nice for the most part. There is some rundown housing but Silverleaf looks mostly owner operated to me. In fact, a lot of it is pretty impressively middle class. It is nowhere near as rundown as Brookstown where I live. I am hoping it won't take much longer for Baton Rouge neighborhoods to start to gentrify a little, like Atlanta has. However, this will take a better quality of acceptance of urban pioneers since most of the early gentrifiers are usually gay.

20) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

The editorial is right about the babies in NICU. Some of them are there for months on end. (JIndal tried to cut funding for their care too.) Those first weeks and months are important bonding times for parents and infants and actually contribute to their health. The parents need to be able to get to the hospital to be with their children, especially when you consider the high infant death rate in Louisiana. This is supposedly a pro-life state, but the same people who demand that babies be born refuse to support them after they get here, even to the extent of helping with transportation. Remember that the area of Baton Rouge that Women's relocated to is predominantly Republican and did not want to pay for even the most minimal amount of public transportation.

21) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

The government is not going to do anything about this bus situation until a woman goes into labor on the Airline Highway median or one of her older children gets away and gets hit by a car...........As for the father carrying the mother to the hospital, he either has to use the car for work to his minimum wage job or he rides the bus too.

22) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

twinkie1cat , I lived in several neighborhoods in NBR , off Silverleaf in Glen Oaks , on Shelly St , Prescott near Winbourne . watched their steady decline . Jindal and the republicans had nothing to do with this .

23) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

this area is outside of CATS boundary as was allowed to vote . I'm not heartless . why not CATS enter a partnership with BR General using that as a vantage point , run the smaller shuttle buses between there and Womans ?

24) Comment by twinkie1cat - 31/01/2013

Phil: You asked who moved the hospitals away from the poor? The Jindalclones at the direction of our dictator of course. People in North Baton Rouge do not vote Republican. Check the voting articles where The Advocate lists how each precinct went if you don't believe me. Most of the people in my precinct voted for Tara Hollis, the teacher who came in second. Since they don't vote Republican, why would Jindal care about whether or not they can get to health services?? Fewer blacks and poor people mean fewer people voting for others. So they may as well go on and die as far as he's concerned.

25) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 31/01/2013

nimby, I am quite aware you aren't a christian and my original comment wasn't directed at you but since you chimed in, I will ask this: How would CATS extending a bus route cause you to accommodate anyone?

26) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

not a christian . just tired of accommodating those who haven't learn from the mistakes of previous generations , while living under the same roof ...

27) Comment by crazycajun - 31/01/2013

It's simply amazing how easy it is for an article to bring out the ignorance in people. The vast majority commenting on this subject are just showing how ignorant they are of the situation. None of these patients asked for their healthcare facility to be moved clear across East Baton Rouge Parish. This was forced on them by L'il booby and his band of idiots. These childish obviously racial undertones just goes to show the level of grade school mentality of a lot of you. They're taking my money! They're taking my money! Grow up and get a life and stop bitching. You want to blame anyone and everyone for ur pitiful existence. I've had a great career and made enough money to have a very comfortable lifestyle. It's called taking advantaged of having a great education to have this lifestyle. Maybe some of you should have done the same.

28) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 31/01/2013

the comments from the christian peanut gallery astound (but don't surprise) me...

29) Comment by Whatnow - 31/01/2013

8point6, good points, and nimby, my sentiments exactly. DMJ and Tea_Slayer and other crusaders for the poor could volunteer their time by bringing these women to the hospital. Maybe they could set up a volunteer service with their friends. Any more volunteers?

30) Comment by phil - 31/01/2013

Look in the mirror? I often get up in the morning, look in the mirror. and ask that person in the mirror which corrupt government agency or corrupt individual and/or wasteful tax spending he will try to fight today. It really takes up a lot of time and it really is NOT fun to do. My mirror works just fine, thank you.

31) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

when you've done more than your fair share it is very easy to look in the mirror .

32) Comment by Tea_Slayer - 31/01/2013

Not every mother that relies on public transportation is single/unwed/etc. It's funny how this simple problem (extending the CATS route an extra 1.5 miles) has turned into poor bashing. I don't see how you people can even look in the mirror.

33) Comment by phil - 31/01/2013

Dear DMJ: Do you think the people who pushed the CATS tax really had poor folks in mind when they proposed a tax that would NOT include the homestead exemption? They seemed to have no problem at all with increasing poor people's property taxes. How about that? Actually I tend to favor the poor people in this community believe it or not. - at least the ones who are trying to make a living and work hard like most of us do. The people I am concerned about are the very rich people who might siphon tax funds away from the poor for their own profits. Bash them for a while if you really want to get something done in BR, in my opinion.

34) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

breakdown of the family unit , lack of father figure in the home are cited as main reasons leading to poverty . this topic has made several appearances over the last few weeks , never any mention of the father or any effort to involve him . " abandoned by their boyfriends or husbands" , yet I am a 'Heartless degenerate" .

35) Comment by 8point6 - 31/01/2013

C'mon, "our views". Surely, you could blame this on Jindal. And no anti-Jindal letters to the editor today? This medium is slipping. It's Bush's fault.

36) Comment by Ivy - 31/01/2013

Personal choice, DMJ, that's not bashing the poor when they are reminded that with better choices, they don't have to accept the crumbs society is throwing their way. We can't see the future, but we can make sensible choices today, so that whatever the future, we aren't always behind the 8-ball.

37) Comment by DMJ - 31/01/2013

Everyone having fun bashing the poor? It's even better when they're poor mothers, abandoned by their boyfriends or husbands, right? Go ahead...let's see how mean we can be. You know....for fun. Heartless degenerates.

38) Comment by 8point6 - 31/01/2013

No need for me to comment on this. Most of the comments would have been what I would have said.

39) Comment by [e-mail] - 31/01/2013

Sheesh! I wish the same amount of concern were shown for the rest. As for Barrow, it probably didn't hurt her overmuch, and look at all the free publicity she got.

40) Comment by nimby? - 31/01/2013

how about asking the father to drive them ?

41) Comment by tradewinns - 31/01/2013

why work? the more you work the less you receive. quit work, go on the welfare rolls, and live life to the fullest. if you perchance find something that is even slightly inconvience you just start calling one of our whinning social bed wetters and they will start a campaign to fix whatever it is so you will not be unhappy.

42) Comment by SuzanneMS - 31/01/2013

On the bus, phil. On the bus. And you would be wrong, mcarter. It took them an unreasonable amount of time and at least one change, but they could take a bus from Gardere right to the door of EKL. Obviously neither one of you bothered to check the CATS routes on their website.

43) Comment by mcarter - 30/01/2013

I would think these poor women that live so far from the women's hospital can get there just as easy as the poor women that live in Gardere area were able to get to EKL.

44) Comment by phil - 30/01/2013

OK I give up. Figure the shortest path from the existing bus route to the hospital and build a bus stop there if there is not one already. Then the women can call the hospital on their GPS capable device or cellphone and request that a van from the hospital come pick them up at the bus stop. We have already established that poor women can afford the GPS smartphones and/or cell phones haven't we?

45) Comment by phil - 30/01/2013

OK how do all of those poor people get to Earl K Long and other medical places right now? Can they ALL easily get there without having to walk on either end of the trip? So now the ride in between the walks will be a little longer? Sometimes I think our system creates hypothetical new problems (and some real ones too) just so that more tax funds can be obtained. As an alternate solution how about have a mobile hospital travel to north BR once a week or maybe just build another nice new smaller EXPENSIVE facility in North BR. I think it will be cheaper in the long term instead of rebuilding the entire bus system and possibly buying all of those people GPS capable devices. Who decided to move all of the health facilities away from the poor areas anyway? Great forward thinking and, I give you all involved the Futurebr award for not-so-great smart-growth planning. How many planning commissions are there in EBR Parish anyway??