Prairieville hospital closes after LDH takes away license for not meeting state requirements

Trinity Velazquez
·2 min read

ASCENSION PARISH, La. (BRPROUD) — A hospital in Prairieville has closed after about five years in business. The Louisiana Department of Health notified the owners that the hospital had not met the state’s criteria to operate as a hospital.

Dr. John McLean M.D. is the CEO and one of the owners of Prairieville Family Hospital. He said he got the notice at the end of March.

In a letter, LDH Secretary Ralph Abraham said that the decision to take away the license was due to the hospital’s violation of La. R.S. 40: §2115.33, which requires that emergency facilities in Louisiana operate as part of the hospital’s main campus. Or, they can operate as a separate off-site campus of an existing hospital.

McLean said LDH determined them a freestanding hospital, which is prohibited in Louisiana.

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“The state legislature enacted a very tight bill that said you have to have two people in the hospital at all times on average and stay two nights to be considered a hospital and we weren’t hitting that mark,” McLean said.

The hospital closed at 7 p.m. on Sunday. McLean said there was so much water under the bridge and it would take too long to fight back. He thinks people prefer something closer. They don’t want to be transferred back to Baton Rouge.

“Each access hospital that was just trying to grow business and provide exceptional health care to local people communities, can’t do it. The state doesn’t want you to evolve,” McLean said. “So yeah, I think the legislature needs to reconsider it for the future. But I think it’s gonna be an uphill battle to get that change.”

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McLean said patients can go online to see their charts for the next 60 days.

“Outside of that, I think they’re just going to have to find healthcare through the usual sources,” he said.

The hospital opened in April 2019.

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