{"id":16550,"date":"2026-05-15T09:58:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/police-jury-asks-state-to-evaluate-nlmc-ruston-daily-leader\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T09:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:58:50","slug":"police-jury-asks-state-to-evaluate-nlmc-ruston-daily-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/police-jury-asks-state-to-evaluate-nlmc-ruston-daily-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Police jury asks state to evaluate NLMC – Ruston Daily Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lincoln Parish Police Jury is asking the state health department to evaluate Northern Louisiana Medical Center\u2019s staffing, services, equipment and other critical components after jurors say they\u2019ve fielded numerous concerns from hospital staff about these factors.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
That\u2019s the effect of a resolution the jury unanimously passed Tuesday, requesting the Louisiana Department of Health to review the Ruston hospital\u2019s operations, including everything from staffing levels and availability of supplies to financial solvency, licensing compliance and even sanitation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\u201cThis is a resolution we are sending to LDH expressing our concerns for our health care situation here in Lincoln Parish,\u201d police jury President Glenn Scriber said before Tuesday\u2019s vote on the resolution. \u201cI think everyone is aware that we\u2019re just not satisfied with our health care.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
District 12 juror Annette Straughter, who chairs the jury\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about from the front of the hospital to the back, from the bottom level to the top level,\u201d Straughter said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been reaching out to jurors asking for help. They\u2019re concerned not only for their jobs, but being able to provide the care citizens need.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
NLMC management did not respond to requests for comment by press time Thursday.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
The LDH is the state\u2019s regulatory agency for hospital licensing, health standards and related matters. Its authority extends as far as potentially revoking a facility\u2019s operating license for non-compliance. The jury\u2019s resolution asks for a response from LDH within 30 days.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\u201cThis resolution simply asks LDH to conduct a standard evaluation of local healthcare operations following inquiries from the community,\u201d Treasurer Michael Sutton said in a statement on behalf of the jury Wednesday. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\u201cIt\u2019s evident that we as jurors needed to be proactive in making sure our health care system does not fail us,\u201d she said. \u201cNLMC 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 \u2014 reliable access to the emergency room, inpatient care, surgery, labs, imaging. If we\u2019re going to say we\u2019re offering these things, they need to be reliable and top of the line.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
Jurors said at Tuesday\u2019s meeting the resolution seeks to help NLMC employees, not target them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\u201cThere are great nurses, doctors, and management there, but there is some hand-tying being done to what they can and can\u2019t do,\u201d District 8 juror Chris \u201cMoose\u201d Garriga said. \u201cWe are on their side, and that\u2019s part of the reason we\u2019re doing this.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
The jury\u2019s move comes a few months after a sweeping third-party study of Lincoln Parish health care \u2014 commissioned by the jury, city of Ruston and the Lincoln Health Foundation \u2014 showed NLMC has lost market share in recent years and residents expressed an overall distrust of the facility.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
The study called the existing health care landscape \u201ca barrier to economic growth\u201d and cited statistics showing almost 50% of parish residents seek hospital care and specialized services outside the parish, including some 70% of insured residents.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\"Ruston<\/a>
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Ruston, LA 71270
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© Ruston Daily Leader 2026<\/p>\n

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The Lincoln Parish Police Jury is asking the state health department to evaluate Northern Louisiana Medical Center\u2019s staffing, services, equipment and other critical components after jurors say they\u2019ve fielded numerous concerns from hospital staff about these factors.That\u2019s the effect of a resolution the jury unanimously passed Tuesday, requesting the Louisiana Department of Health to review […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}