PART FIVE: A vacant building paved way for rural healthcare in parish

“The push toward improved healthcare for rural Pointe Coupee Parish began with a dormant school campus and a $10,000 check.

The check covered acquisition of the Innis Community Health Center, now Arbor Family Medicine, which Pointe Coupee Health Services District No. 1 purchased in 2001.

“We bought the gym, the high school … the whole thing, for $10,000,” said Chad Olinde, CEO for Pointe Coupee General Hospital.

Pointe Coupee General renovated the high school and created a Federally Qualified Health Care (FQHC) facility.”

The push toward improved healthcare for rural Pointe Coupee Parish began with a dormant school campus and a $10,000 check.

The check covered acquisition of the Innis Community Health Center, now Arbor Family Medicine, which Pointe Coupee Health Services District No. 1 purchased in 2001.

“We bought the gym, the high school … the whole thing, for $10,000,” said Chad Olinde, CEO for Pointe Coupee General Hospital.

Pointe Coupee General renovated the high school and created a Federally Qualified Health Care (FQHC) facility.

The FQHC was a dive into unchartered waters for the hospital.

“Initially, we were kind of curious about how it was going to get started and if people would use it,” Olinde said.

It found the ideal person to help get the ball rolling when Dr. Harry Kellerman – who had recently retired – stepped to the plate.

Kellerman’s involvement set the wheels in motion for what was originally known as the Innis Community Health Clinic.

“He was someone people trusted,” Olinde said. “He got it going, and it took off from there.”

The hospital started the facility to address the needs of an area high in poverty with limited health-care availability.

The Innis Community Health Clinic was later rebranded as Arbor Family Health.

The relationship between the hospital and Arbor has served a critical need for the area. It also has been something of an exception to the norm.

The relationship between FQHCs and hospitals is often not cordial.

“They usually compete against each other and don’t like each other,” Olinde said. “We’re very proud that we have a very good relationship with the FQHC.”

Olinde and Home Health Director Jeanine Thibodeaux, chairman of the board, said they’ve been joint board members back and forth over the years.

The outlook for rural hospitals has improved considerably than it was 40 years ago.

Hospitals outside of urban areas struggled for many years, but the combination of federal and state programs gave those facilities a new lease on life.

Federal programs in the early 2000s recognized the importance of funding for rural hospitals, while state legislation brought them an extra layer of protection.

The Louisiana Rural Hospital Preservation Act of 1997 was a bill sponsored by state Rep. Donald Hines – a longtime Bunkie physician who died in 2019.

The bill established a state policy that recognized Louisiana’s small rural hospitals are an “endangered species” and require special protection, such as maximization of reimbursement, including Medicaid payments, Medicaid disproportionate share payments and “any willing provider” status for small, rural hospitals and the physicians who practice at those hospitals.

“Back in the 1990s, the federal government did not believe in funding for the rural hospitals, and they were all struggling,” Olinde said.

“There have been many rural hospital closures across the country.” 

Today, the size of the parish remains the biggest challenge.

Access to care can be difficult on the north end – not everyone has transportation.

The parish Council on Aging has helped with that, but it’s become a big issue with ambulance service because Acadian Ambulance is struggling to fill vacancies for paramedic jobs, Olinde said.

“If you have an ambulance dispatched on the north end of the parish that’s 40 minutes up there, and then you come back, that may take away an ambulance if you have another wreck on the south end of the parish,” he said.

“Also, if we have a patient here with cardiology issues and we have to transfer them to Our Lady of the Lake, that takes an ambulance, so you’re struggling with a lot of distance here.”

It's not an issue of population. Instead, it’s the distance.

Forty-eight miles separate the parish line along U.S. 190 from west of Erwinville to the border of Avoyelles Parish.

Aside from crossing a bridge – and facing heavy traffic – for treatment at a Baton Rouge hospital, Pointe Coupee General is one of the few hospitals in the region between the capital city and Lafayette.

West Baton Rouge Parish does not have a hospital. Iberville Parish has a holding facility through Ochsner, which opened after River West Medical Center closed in 2008. 

“We have a very long parish, and that’s the problem,” he said. 

“But there’s not another hospital north until you get to Marksville, and that’s an hour north of us (in New Roads).”

NEXT WEEK: A look at employee retention and the efforts to attract more specialists to the parish.