BRF took on its largest endeavor and business unit over five years ago with a goal to provide uninterrupted safety net healthcare service to North Louisiana and support to LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport (LSUHSCS) as its clinical partner.
Our secondary goal was to improve University Health System’s (UHS) two hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe’s finances and put them on secure footing for the future. We believe we have achieved these goals.
Beyond financial successes, UHS has many improvements to patient care to celebrate, such as the elimination of massive patient backlogs and queues for patient services, including CT scans, MRIs and cancer treatments.
My heartfelt appreciation goes to each individual at UHS who has made improving patient care and efficiency a priority.
On the horizon is a potential partnership with Ochsner Health System. Now that the hospitals are stable and their future secure for
LSUHSCS and indigent patients, we are in full support of UHS’s transition to Ochsner Health System.
We are well aware that the community may not have understood all the behind-the-scenes work to bring the right healthcare partner to North Louisiana, but know that it has been accomplished by tireless volunteer board members serving BRF and UHS who have withstood the politics and continuously worked for the survival and betterment of safety net healthcare and graduate medical education in North Louisiana.
More than 50 upstanding individuals serving on these boards, transition teams, and BRF and UHS leadership have collectively pushed political and personal agendas aside to bring us to where we are today.
UHS is now stronger, and I believe this potential partnership with Ochsner Health System is the best possible solution for North Louisiana.
Several operators were considered, but none were as good of a fit as Ochsner. Ochsner Health System and its leaders have exceeded our expectations and offer outstanding healthcare services to the state of Louisiana.
We believe their presence in North Louisiana is beneficial to the patients, employees and partners of UHS. We as a board and leaders of BRF and UHS feel good about this partnership.
In politically charged events such as this, there are bound to be nay-sayers, but this partnership and the evolution of the healthcare industry in our region should be a true turning point for our community and for LSUHSCS.
Nothing and no one should stand in the way of our hospitals and medical school becoming the exemplary medical center we’ve expected it to become all these years.
Now is the time to realize potential and build upon the foundation in place.
Thank you all for your support of University Health System.
Together, we are building our region’s future.
John F. George Jr., M.D.
BRF President and CEO