Police jury asks state to evaluate NLMC – Ruston Daily Leader

The Lincoln Parish Police Jury is asking the state health department to evaluate Northern Louisiana Medical Center’s staffing, services, equipment and other critical components after jurors say they’ve fielded numerous concerns from hospital staff about these factors.
That’s the effect of a resolution the jury unanimously passed Tuesday, requesting the Louisiana Department of Health to review the Ruston hospital’s operations, including everything from staffing levels and availability of supplies to financial solvency, licensing compliance and even sanitation.
“This is a resolution we are sending to LDH expressing our concerns for our health care situation here in Lincoln Parish,” police jury President Glenn Scriber said before Tuesday’s vote on the resolution. “I think everyone is aware that we’re just not satisfied with our health care.”
District 12 juror Annette Straughter, who chairs the jury’s Health and Welfare Committee, said the jury made this move after receiving a myriad of phone calls from NLMC employees raising a wide variety of issues.
“We’re talking about from the front of the hospital to the back, from the bottom level to the top level,” Straughter said. “They’ve been reaching out to jurors asking for help. They’re concerned not only for their jobs, but being able to provide the care citizens need.”
NLMC management did not respond to requests for comment by press time Thursday.
The LDH is the state’s regulatory agency for hospital licensing, health standards and related matters. Its authority extends as far as potentially revoking a facility’s operating license for non-compliance. The jury’s resolution asks for a response from LDH within 30 days.
A resolution carries no legal power but is essentially a statement of the intent or position of a public body. Though the document sites a broad array of concerns with NLMC, it also says it makes no definitive accusations and rather seeks help from LDH to verify the reports the jury has heard.
“This resolution simply asks LDH to conduct a standard evaluation of local healthcare operations following inquiries from the community,” Treasurer Michael Sutton said in a statement on behalf of the jury Wednesday. “The Police Jury is not making any official findings or leveling accusations. We are utilizing the proper state channels to ensure transparency, clarity, and the long-term health of Lincoln Parish residents.”
Straughter said complaints she and other jurors have received from citizens but especially NLMC employees include staffing issues, supply chain shortages, loss of essential health care services and unreliable medical equipment.
“It’s evident that we as jurors needed to be proactive in making sure our health care system does not fail us,” she said. “NLMC is an important part of our health care system in the parish. We want it to do well. We want it to be able to provide care — reliable access to the emergency room, inpatient care, surgery, labs, imaging. If we’re going to say we’re offering these things, they need to be reliable and top of the line.”
Jurors said at Tuesday’s meeting the resolution seeks to help NLMC employees, not target them.
“There are great nurses, doctors, and management there, but there is some hand-tying being done to what they can and can’t do,” District 8 juror Chris “Moose” Garriga said. “We are on their side, and that’s part of the reason we’re doing this.”
The jury’s move comes a few months after a sweeping third-party study of Lincoln Parish health care — commissioned by the jury, city of Ruston and the Lincoln Health Foundation — showed NLMC has lost market share in recent years and residents expressed an overall distrust of the facility.
The study called the existing health care landscape “a barrier to economic growth” and cited statistics showing almost 50% of parish residents seek hospital care and specialized services outside the parish, including some 70% of insured residents. 
Jurors say the resolution did not flow directly from that study but is strictly their own response to the concerns they continue to field about the hospital.
The move also comes as Allegiance Health Management, which owns NLMC, continues to face tax liens for unpaid payroll taxes at the Ruston hospital and other properties.


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