Alongside local and state government officials, New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System has announced a $360 million expansion to its Jefferson Highway campus as part of an effort to meet the growing need for highly specialized healthcare across the state and region.
"The increasing number of patients transferred from facilities within and outside of the Ochsner system along with the expansion of the Ochsner Health Network underline the growing demand for the specialty care offered here at Ochsner Medical Center," said Warner Thomas, CEO and president of Ochsner Health System. "We are building on our legacy as a national and global destination for healthcare for the greater New Orleans region and the Gulf South. The next chapter is to create a more comprehensive healthcare corridor anchored by Ochsner Medical Center so we can continue to change and save more lives."
The project will include expansions across the system's north, west and south campuses, with targeted completion dates in 2019.
The expansion of the south campus, the system's main hospital, will increase capacity to offer more specialty care services, such as cancer care, organ transplants, neurologic care, pediatric and cardiac care. On the north campus, a new imaging center will offer comprehensive imaging services including CT Scans, mammography and three additional MRI machines.
The newly created west campus includes the Jefferson Plaza Shopping Center, which spans eight acres. It will also include the Ochsner Rehabilitation Hospital, a new acute inpatient rehabilitation facility in partnership with Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based Select Medical Corp., an inpatient rehabilitation provider. The new facility will double inpatient rehabilitation beds from 28 to 60 and add 15 pediatric specialty inpatient rehabilitation beds. The new hospital is expected to employ 180 therapists, nurses and other specialists.
The Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission has also integrated Ochsner into its Jefferson EDGE 2020 economic development plan, which outlines a pathway to economic improvement in the redevelopment of the Jefferson Plaza Shopping Center.
The construction phase of the health system's expansion plan will create 284 new jobs. As a result of these jobs, it will also increase household earnings for Parish residents to $135 million and generate more than $610 million in new sales to local businesses in Jefferson Parish.