St. Charles Parish Hospital wants to borrow $15 million to build a new outpatient medical center, a state-of-the-art cardiac catheter lab and an East Bank-based after-hours care center, but voters will have the final say so on April 21.
Hospital officials said they will be able to borrow the money without increasing the current tax rate, which means that the owner of a $200,000 home will continue to pay $39.50 a year for hospital services.
The tax rate would decrease if the money is not borrowed.
The new outpatient facility would have a cardiology center, a center for digestive care, a lung center, vision care and a department for orthopedics and sports medicine. The estimated cost of the center is $6.6 million. The planned cardiac catheter lab would be built at a cost of $2 million, which is also the estimated price of a new after-hours clinic on the East Bank, hospital officials said.
The hospital also plans to spend $1.9 million on “state-of-the-art equipment,” $2 million on physician practice development and $500,000 to upgrade the ambulance fleet.
The projects would create 50 full-time jobs, according to Hospital CEO Federico Martinez Jr.
According to a poll of St. Charles residents performed by Silas Lee and Associates last July, cardiology, digestive and colon care and orthopedic services were what people identified as the services they wanted at the hospital.
Martinez said that the baby boomer population, which are those residents born between 1946-64, are increasing in the parish and will need specialists as they age.
If voters approve the measure on April 21, Martinez said the hospital plans to open the East Bank primary and advanced after-hours care center in the fall of 2013 and the outpatient medical center and catheter lab in the spring of 2014.
The St. Charles Parish Council approved the referendum on Tuesday, with Councilman Paul Hogan and Councilwoman Carolyn Schexnaydre voting against it.
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