Another LSU System health care leader replaced

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) ? Another top leader of LSU's health care system is being replaced, as Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration pushes the university-run network of hospitals and clinics to change its approach to providing services amid significant budget cuts.

Roxane Townsend will no longer work as CEO of the LSU Health Care Services Division, which runs seven of the 10 public hospitals overseen by the university system, including the largest facility in New Orleans.

LSU announced the leadership change Wednesday by naming Townsend's replacement, without explanation.

The move comes fewer than two weeks after the LSU System's top health care leader, Fred Cerise, was ousted from his job. Cerise clashed with the Jindal administration about deep budget cuts the administration made to the hospitals that care for Louisiana's poor and uninsured and that train many of the state's medical professionals.

Townsend was a close ally of Cerise, who was replaced Aug. 24 by Frank Opelka.

Townsend wouldn't say whether she was asked to leave or expected to be removed as Opelka assembled his own leadership team. But she said the LSU board, packed with nearly all Jindal appointees, was shifting from the public-hospital model championed by Townsend and Cerise.

"With Dr. Opelka, it's clear that the system is going in a different direction and he needs to have people surrounding him that he trusts and that the board and the governor's office will trust," she said.

Opelka said Townsend chose to leave the LSU HCSD job and that no one spoke with him about removing Townsend. He said Townsend "really wanted to take some personal time away," and he praised her work for the university.

While saying he didn't force Townsend out of the leadership position, Opelka acknowledged that Townsend "had been building something in a certain direction, but the direction is changing."

Michael Kaiser, the chief medical officer of HCSD, was named as Townsend's replacement.

Townsend also had been the interim CEO of both LSU hospitals in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Replacements were named for her in each of those jobs as well.

Townsend has a contract with LSU that allows her to stay with the university system through January 2016. She had been in her current job for nearly four years, and she wasn't sure where she would go next.

The Jindal administration decided to levy much of an ongoing federal Medicaid cut on the LSU-run network of hospitals and outpatient clinics. LSU is using stopgap funding to stave off many of the immediate cuts to the health system.

But state Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein has said continued drops in financing should be expected annually. Estimates are that the cuts will strip about a quarter of the hospital system's more than $1 billion budget.

Jindal and the governor's allies on the LSU Board of Supervisors have said the hospitals need to be updated, and the safety-net system of care needs to be reworked.

In a statement, Kaiser talked of finding new models for the system.

"Despite a very challenging budget situation, we are obligated to continue training future health professionals for our state while also assuring continuity of care for the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on LSU Health for their medical care," he said. "New models must be identified to meet this dual mission."

Cerise and Townsend had been prominent supporters of the existing model.

Townsend had worked with Cerise at Earl K. Long Medical Center, the LSU-run hospital in Baton Rouge, and then worked for Cerise at the state health department under Democratic former Gov. Kathleen Blanco before returning to LSU's health care system.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/another-lsu-system-health-care-leader-replaced-151512263--finance.html

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