Ochsner Baton Rouge celebrated one year since opening Ochsner Community Health - Brees Family Center in North Baton Rouge. The facility also represents a crucial partnership among Ochsner, East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, and other community leaders, along with the Brees Dream Foundation.
The Brees Family Center opened in April 2001 in the New Era Medical Complex with approximately 5,100 square feet of space with 10 exam rooms. The center provides primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, obstetrics/gynecology, and smoking cessation services to underserved communities with the goal of promoting health equity for all.
The center is part of Ochsner Health’s $10 million commitment to open 15 community health centers across the state, made possible with a $5 million gift in 2020 from Brittany and Drew Brees’ Brees Dream Foundation. Funds from the Brees Dream Foundation support startup and operational costs for these facilities.
In addition, the Brees Family Center is part of Ochsner’s Healthy State initiative to improve Louisiana’s national health ranking from No. 50 to No. 40 by 2030.
“In just one year, this facility has made a difference in our lives,” said East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sharon Westin Broome. “It has improved families’ ability to receive healthcare. To seek testing that is crucial to diagnosing, treating, and managing illnesses. To receive COVID-19 vaccines. And the ability to do all this closer to home.”
Kevin Green, Ochsner vice president of clinic operations for Community Health Centers, said the Brees Family Center has had more than 6,700 appointments made since opening. He said that the center has also formed community partnerships with Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge, the Greater Baton Food Bank, Scotlandville Hight School, Scotlandville Community Development Corp., and Baton Rouge NOW.
“We know that meeting patients where they are to help proactively manage any chronic diseases helps us improve overall health and well-being,” Green said. “We also know that outcomes are better when we engage with community partners, and over the past year, we’ve made significant strides.”
Providers at the center include the primary care team of Edith Mbagwu, MD, Coleatha Fowler, NP, and Trakissia Tolbert, NP, pediatrician Durga Alahari, MD, social worker Sarah Dulaney, LCSW, and women’s services provider Molly McRae, NP.
The Brees Family Center is open Monday-Thursday from 7 a.m.-6 p.m., and Fridays from 7 a.m.-5 p.m.
Pictured at the recent celebration, left to right, are Chuck Daigle, Ochsner-BR CEO; Mayor Broome; Wanda Robinson, MD, medical director of community care, Ochsner Health; Chauna Banks, councilwoman, EBR District 2; Sandra Brown, DNS, Dean, Community Advisory Council member/SU Nursing School; and Byron Washington, Community Advisory Council member. Standing behind the chairs is Courtney Hunt.