Info

St. Charles Community Health Center expects to see its patient load more than double in the coming year, thanks to increased population in the parish, and a new clinic in Kenner that opened in December. Mark Keiser, the center's chief executive officer, said he expects more than 54,000 patient visits in the center's 2006-07 fiscal year, up from 24,173 last year. The health center, which aims to provide affordable health care to parish residents, focusing on preventive medicine, opened in 2003. It is at 843 Milling Ave. in Luling directly behind St. Charles Parish Hospital. "We're a safety net provider," Keiser said. "Our mission is to provide care in a way that's much cheaper than doing so in an emergency room." The Kenner clinic opened as part of the Luling-based health center's effort to provide more service to St. Charles Parish's east bank. One of the clinic's physicians was running a part-time private practice in the medical office building at Kenner Regional Medical Center, and Keiser said many of his east bank patients were from St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes. After the clinic opened, the state awarded the clinic a contract in Jefferson Parish for the Women and Infant Children program, which is designed to give instruction in child care and nutrition to new mothers. It also has the contract for St. Charles Parish. That program is expected to provide the bulk of the patient increase, Keiser said. In the long run, the health center plans to open a clinic on the east bank of St. Charles, possibly in the Norco area, Keiser said. The center, which replaced a state and federally financed health unit that closed because of budget cuts in 2002, has about 60 employees and a budget of about $5 million that includes revenue from state and federal health contracts, and patient payments. The center recently received a $50,000 federal grant to help finance a mobile medical unit, which it plans to use to provide medical help in areas ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The center is seeking additional grants to pay for the estimated $200,000 cost of operating the medical unit through December. The United Way of St. Charles provided a $200,000 grant to operate a borrowed mobile unit between December and March. "We're doing this because so many of the areas that were damaged lost access to medical care," Keiser said. The center should be reimbursed for the major portion of its Katrina-related expenses, he said.