HJBR May/Jun 2020

48 MAY / JUN 2020  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Hospital Rounds The Harris Poll between July 17 – Aug. 7, 2019, polled more than 2,000 people across the state providing a new and deeper understanding of Louisianans and the way they think about their health. “Our physicians and clinical teams work every day to help improve the communities we serve,” Vath said. “This data gives us important insight into how people feel about their ability to live a happy, healthy life and what might be holding them back.” A majority of Louisianan adults (74%) rate their overall health as excellent or good and most agree that, in general, people in Louisiana are happy (82%). However, while Louisianans are pos- itive about their own health, only one-third (34%) agree that Louisianans are healthy, and more than half of Louisianans say none of their friends (53%) or family (55%) consistently exercise. Further, only 33% view Louisianan culture as being a culture of health, and 60% agree that it is hard to enjoy Lou- isianan culture and be healthy at the same time. FranciscanMissionaries of Our Lady Health System Launches Coronavirus (COVID-19) Task Force Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health Sys- tem announced the creation of its Coronavirus (COVID-19) Task Force, whose focus will be on streamlining information distribution and clinical operations across the health system’s locations throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. The task force will be chaired by Steven Gremi- llion, MD, chief medical officer for the Francis- can Missionaries of Our Lady Health System and include physicians from each of the health sys- tem’s markets: • Catherine O’Neal, MD, in Baton Rouge, La. (co-chair) • Hamid Hussain, MD, in Bogalusa, La. • Buster McVey, MD, in Jackson, Miss. • Frank Courmier, MD, in Lafayette, La. • John Bruchhaus, MD, in Monroe, La. Nicole Telhiard, DNP, CPN, NE-BC, chief nursing officer for Our Lady of the Lake, will provide con- sultation from a nursing perspective. “With locations in Louisiana and Mississippi, this task force is the next step in our preparedness plans to ensure we have a streamlined approach to serving our communities should they be impacted by the novel Coronavirus,” said Gremi- llion. “Physicians from each of our ministries will work together on this task force to ensure we have the resources and information necessary to pro- vide exceptional care.” The task force will be meeting regularly to estab- lish and adjust processes and procedures regard- ing COVID-19 response and ensuring the health system’s more than 18,000 employees are pro- vided the information necessary to provide care for their communities. “While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Louisiana or Mississippi, it’s not a matter of if we’ll see them but when, and we want our health system to have all of the resources necessary to respond,” said O’Neal, infectious disease specialist at Our Lady of the Lake. “We are working with local, state and federal officials, as well as large employers to best prepare our communities.” Woman’s Promotes Kayla Tamplain to Director of CareManagement Woman’s Hospital has announced that Kayla Tamplain, BSN, has been promoted to director of care management. In that role, she will be respon- sible for care management and population health initiatives, such as the GRACE Program for preg- nant women with opioid use disorder. Tamplain joined Woman’s Hospital in 2012 as a nurse in med surg/oncology, and has held several positions within the organization, including most recently serving as manager of utilization review. In that role, she has helped the hospital improve its reimbursement model, as well as leading important initiatives to improve care to patients in the community. Tamplain received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Southeastern and is currently enrolled in a master’s program in leadership and management, which she is expected to complete next year. n Part of the night shift crew is pictured on the first day Baton Rouge General Mid City opened as a surge hospital to accept COVID-19 patients.