CHRISTUS Health Shreveport-Bossier is expanding its facilities and services at CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center located in a growing corridor of Shreveport and will add outpatient services at multiple sites in the area. But it will close CHRISTUS Schumpert Medical Center, which includes Sutton Children's Medical Center, near downtown Shreveport, the system said.
Dana Smelser, director of marketing for CHRISTUS Health Shreveport-Bossier, said CHRISTUS Health Shreveport-Bossier has 1,800 full and part-time employees and about 200 will be laid off, though those affected will have an opportunity to apply for other positions with CHRISTUS, including some positions currently being left open to allow for that process.
CHRISTUS Health Shreveport-Bossier said that it will make a capital investment of $55 million and set a 24 month timeline for many of the changes it announced May 20, though some service changes may begin this summer.
The CHRISTUS Highland campus redesign will include a new cancer treatment center, a new neonatal intensive care unit and the expansion of The Birth Place for maternity care.
Stephen Wright, president and chief executive of CHRISTUS Health Louisiana, said in a statement that Sutton Children's Medical Center has run at a deficit since its inception. He said there has been a duplication of services in the North Louisiana region. Cuts to Medicaid funding also were a factor in the closing, he said.
CHRISTUS says it will focus on expanding primary care physician practices, labs and diagnostic imaging centers and additional outpatient services for Bossier City, and other growing areas in the region. A consulting company, Dynamis, will work with CHRISTUS Health and the community to repurpose the Schumpert campus.