by Wesley Harris
Changes in the local healthcare landscape seem to be coming fast and furiously. New providers setting up shop in town and established doctors opening up their own independent offices have locals pondering how these changes will affect their own healthcare decisions.
When I was growing up in Ruston, you went to Green Clinic to see a doctor if you had a fever or one of two dentists for a toothache and to Lincoln General Hospital to mend broken bones, have babies, or undergo surgery. Few other options existed. Some locals sought treatment in Monroe or Shreveport but best I recall, that was rare.
My memory is that the dentists were the first to open up their own offices outside the established foundations of the clinic and the hospital. Then doctors followed. But maintaining separate facilities outside a joint clinic that can provide tenants with lab services, X-ray, and a business office is a tough financial decision for providers. Plenty of physicians have opened their own offices in Ruston and then decided the overhead cut deeply into profits and moved on.
Now, with telehealth possibilities, independent clinics, urgent care facilities, and a host of out-of-town options along the I-20 corridor and beyond, an already complicated health system now requires the patient to research and choose providers and then learn if their choice is “in network.” Insurance, with all its complexities, is enough to send you to urgent care with a migraine.
Perhaps the biggest news recently is the construction of a large Willis-Knighton Health System clinic on property the Shreveport-based provider purchased on the South Service Road last year. This follows an Allegiance Health Management System’s announcement of the purchase of land near Lowe’s for a new North Louisiana Medical Center. In the meantime, NLMC is collaborating with LSU Ochsner to ensure patients in rural Louisiana receive the same level of quality, innovation, and expertise found in major metropolitan centers.
Willis-Knighton has been around a long time. Dr. James Willis and Dr. Joseph Knighton, two country doctors from Claiborne Parish, formed a partnership in Homer in the early 1900s and later moved to Shreveport where they built their first hospital. Willis-Knighton has gained a foothold in Ruston already with small clinics specializing in family medicine, pediatrics, OB-GYN, and cardiology, but the new facility is sure to bring in other specialists and pull patients from the north central Louisiana area.
Another provider, Adala Health, has announced it will open a primary care facility soon at 902 South Vienna. The rumor mill says another pharmacy may be opening in Downtown Ruston.
Several physicians have left Green Clinic and at least two of them have opted to establish their own offices in Ruston. Rochelle Robicheaux has opened her own rheumatology clinic in the former Portico Restaurant building on the Farmerville Highway. And dermatologist Josh Mandrell and his team are moving to the former Vision Center building on Tech Drive.
One growing trend is to seek medical treatment in tiny but well-equipped north Louisiana towns rather than bustling off to the big city. Bigger doesn’t always mean better, especially when your priorities in healthcare services are a provider’s caring attitude and willingness to spend time with the patient.
One thing you can say for sure about our local healthcare situation—there’s plenty of choices and more are coming. As a consumer of medical services, educate yourself about your options, your insurance, and how to improve your health beyond the doctor’s office. The challenge for us is to learn enough now that we can make wise decisions when the need arrives for care.
