It’s been 105 years since the hospital on Third and Scott opened its doors for business.
ALEXANDRIA – It’s been 105 years since the hospital on Third and Scott opened its doors for business.
It’s been 90 years since it was donated to the Louisiana Baptist Convention, 38 years since the LBC released the hospital back to its trustees, and 37 years ago its name was changed to Rapides General Hospital.
For many, though, this medical landmark will forever be known as the Baptist Hospital in Alexandria.
On May 13, Rapides Regional Medical Center will begin a new chapter in its storied history when it unveils a $50 million, 138,000-square-foot expansion to the public. It is bigger, better, and more technologically advanced than anything those six physicians who started it could have ever imagined.
It will feature a state-of-the-art emergency room and ICU, 72 new patient beds, dialysis center, medical library and art gallery. And with the new addition, which sits on the site of the old parking lot, the medical complex encompasses 21 blocks of downtown Alexandria.
Of the many who will come to marvel at this impressive complex will be 87-year-old Mike Bozeman, M.D., who still refers to the facility as the old Baptist Hospital; 85-year-old Julius McLaren, the hospital’s former administrator, and 83-year-old David Carlton, M.D., a retired family practitioner from Lecompte.
“The old Baptist Hospital, yes sir I remember it well,” Bozeman said. “I did my internship there. By today’s standards, people would probably thing it was pretty crude, but back then it was top of the line.”
Bozeman, who retired in 2000, remembers there was no air conditioning when he was there as an intern in 1950. The emergency room was one room with four stretchers separated by curtains. The operating room was a single room with several large windows to let in light.
“We often operated with the windows open to catch a breeze,” Bozeman chuckled. “It was very small and simple. Of course, things were a lot simpler back in those days. It’s certainly not anything like people are use to seeing today.”
Bozeman completed his internship about the time the King Rand Polio Center was established in the old maternity building. He worked in the center where he learned how to do a spinal puncture.
“You know, there have been so many advancements … so many new buildings … during my lifetime,” Bozeman said. “But I never would have imagined they could do what they are doing now.
“My imagination pretty much stopped when the hospital built the new 4-story building and shortly afterwards purchased air conditioners. The rooms were so big and one of our luxury suites cost $20. I thought the old Baptist Hospital couldn’t get any better than this,” Bozeman said. “I guess I was wrong.”
Like Bozeman, McLaurin was also very proud of the old Baptist Hospital and its many advancements.
“I’ve been retired for more than 20 years now, but I still have a lot of fond memories of the old Baptist Hospital here in Alexandria. As a matter of fact, Alexandria, DeRidder, Jonesville and Jena all operated Baptist Hospitals at the time, but Alexandria was by far the biggest one of the group,” McLaurin said. “You know if I had my way, the old Baptist Hospital in Alexandria would still be Baptist.
“At the time the hospital was trying to get a three percent subsidy from the federal government, but I couldn’t get the [Louisiana Baptist] Convention to go along with it,” McLaurin said. “They didn’t realize it at the time but we were already receiving some federal funding, because of the depreciation process.
“The hospital, which had total assets of almost $6 million, needed the subsidy so we could expand and grow,” McLaurin said. “So, I went to Dr. [Robert] Lee, who was the executive president of the Convention at the time, to ask his advice. He told me to request the hospital be released from the LBC, and he would help me see it through.”
On Nov. 1970 in Shreveport, the hospital’s trustees asked the Convention to release the hospital to them as a non-profit corporation.
It was approved, and five months later the name of the hospital was changed to Rapides General Hospital.
The next 18 years, all under McLaurin’s watchful eye, the hospital underwent a tremendous building boom. Among the projects finished were a new modern hospital featuring over 200 beds, a full time physician-covered emergency room, ambulance service, the completion of the sixth and seventh floors of the hospital towers, dialysis unit, the opening of the medical plaza, terrace and cancer treatment center.
“On the day I retired, the Women’s Hospital was completed,” McLaurin said. “Jim Montgomery took my place, and when they sold the facility to Columbia HCA, A.C. Buchanan came in and replaced him.”
When Carlton graduated at Tulane Medical School, he set up his practice in Lecompte, which at the time had a hospital of its own. After the hospital closed, he would often frequent St. Francis Cabrini, which was closer.
“But that didn’t mean I didn’t go to Baptist,” Carlton said. “If a patient requested, I would send them on to Baptist. And I also assisted on numerous surgeries over there.”
Even though, the hospital did not have air conditioning, just fans, and the doctors would be drenched in sweat after a lengthy surgery, the facility was still considered to be one of the best in the area.
“As I recall, the old Baptist Hospital facilities were ahead of their time,” Carlton said. “And they also had excellent nurses, some of the best.”
Cheryl Wilson, Rapides Regional Medical Center’s chief operating officer, is well aware of the facility’s historical landmark status. “We are tying the old together with the new,” she said during a pre-opening visit by the Message. “All the wood and décor you see in here will be tied back or existing facility. We are very in tune to our history.”
One of the ceremonies that will take place May 13 will be the moving of the historical marker to a more prominent spot. Many former doctors and administrators will also be among those invited back to tour the facility.
“From a small, two-story wooden building with just 20 beds, this expansion will give people from not only Alexandria, but the central Louisiana region a state-of-the-art healthcare facility with more than 200 physicians, more than 350 beds, 30 medical specialties, and more than 2,000 employees,” Wilson said.
As big as the old facility was, it wasn’t big enough. Wilson believes many of the issues facing the old facility have been addressed with this expansion.
“We had outgrown our existing facility,” Wilson said. “There were days when we didn’t have any empty patient beds. Patients were experiencing long waits in the emergency room. We were growing and it was time for our building to grow with us.”
To insure the needs of the community – patients and the patients’ families – were met, hospital administrators turned to its nurses to help with the interior design.
“You will notice all the rooms are bigger, brighter, easier to get around,” Wilson said. “Each room has a computer hidden away in a locked cabinet on the wall. The plug-ins for the different outlets for emergency power and medical gases are in the wall and out of the way.
“The rooms are designed to allow ebb and flow so the nurses and doctors can easily navigate around a patient’s room as they work,” Wilson said. “The input from our team of nurses was invaluable.”
The patients and staff are not the only beneficiaries of the nurse’s input.
“We designed the south tower with the family in mind as well,” said Charla Ducote, vice president of marketing and business development. “In the corridor off the new main entrance, we have designed it as a healing place. Local artists will be able to display their works along the way and people can just sit and reflect, pray, or get away to some solitude here.
“The ER and ICU waiting room is larger and separated to allow for some privacy.” Ducote said. “Because we live in the South, many people refuse to leave a loved one and won’t go home.
“We encourage them to do so but often they won’t,” Ducote said. “So, we have tried to meet their needs with personal lockers for them to store items, a large vending area with tables and a sink, and a waiting room that can hold up to 125 people.”
The ER waiting room is also bigger.
“It is bigger, but we have an overflow area close by in case there is a bad car wreck, a tragedy where a church’s congregation comes in support of the family. The overflow area is a hallway leading up to the emergency room. It will have couches and chairs where people can go to pray or gather,” Wilson said.
Besides the new ER lobby, increase in rooms –25 – for minor and non-acute emergencies, there are also five rooms and beds set aside for those who will be admitted. In these rooms, the patients can be worked up before being taken up stairs instead of having to wait and be worked up upstairs.
“It is just a way to help streamline the process,” Wilson said. “The nurses work stations have also been improved, especially in ICU where a nurse’s stations sits across from the room where they can look up and see the patients in their beds.”
An added feature is the new medical library on the upper floors. “It will be open to both medical personnel and patients,” Ducote said. “If a patient is diagnosed with say diabetes they or a family member can look it up in the library.
“If the library is closed, they can leave their questions on a board outside the door with their room number, and material will be brought to their room,” Ducote said. “We have tried to design it so people have access as well. It will be like having Books A Million in the hospital.”
In addition to the expansion, Wilson also proudly said the complex was getting Triology.
The Rapides Cancer Center will begin treating patients with a much anticipated new $5 million image-guided radiation therapy machine (Trilogy) on May 27.
“This machine, along with the RapidArc delivery upgrade, will put the Rapides Cancer Center at the forefront of radiation therapy technology, both across the state and around the country, “ Wilson said. “We very excited about our future here at Rapides.”
The old Baptist Hospital has come a long ways.
A community-wide grand opening is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday, May 13, just outside the hospital’s new main entrance on Fourth Street.
The event will include a ribbon cutting, blessing of the building, placement of a historical sign, music and refreshments.