Louisiana coastal hospitals transfer patients to make room for Hurricane Francine needs

While no hospitals have fully closed for Hurricane Francine, four medical centers near the Louisiana coast moved patients out of their facilities to ensure they will have enough capacity to treat people when the storm passes.

Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Cut Off has preemptively discharged five people, transferred one patient and limited services to the emergency room only, according to documents provided by Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham Wednesday.

Three other hospitals moved a small number of people from their intensive care, behavioral health and other units to medical facilities expected to see less impact from Hurricane Francine.

“Those hospitals are still fully operational,” Abraham said. “They’re just getting a little proactive. I commend them for that.”

Those transferring patients include Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City, Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland and Leonard Chabert Medical Center in Houma, which is also run by Ochsner Health.

“In an abundance of caution with anticipation of severe weather from Hurricane Francine, we proactively facilitated the safe transfer of more than 60 patients from our hospitals in the Bayou region to other Ochsner Health locations yesterday,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kuo, Ochsner’s system medical director of emergency management and security.

“We continue to coordinate with all hospitals across south Louisiana and beyond, accepting transfers from other facilities to help ensure every patient receives the level of care they need, when they need it,” Kuo said.

Two nursing homes near the coast have had partial evacuations as well. One in Vermillion Parish moved eight residents to another nursing home in DeSoto Parish. A facility in Luling transferred residents to a Metairie nursing facility, Abraham said.

Ahead of the hurricane, Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order Tuesday allowing nursing homes to take in more patients than state restrictions normally allow through Oct. 10.

Francine made landfall near Morgan City as a Category 2 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph.

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