AmeriCares Teams Up With LSU To Open Clinic In Baton Rouge

Stamford, CT, September 29 2005 – AmeriCares is teaming up with the Internal Medicine Department of Louisiana State University to open a clinic in Baton Rouge that will provide free healthcare service to those in need.

The clinic’s mission is to serve displaced persons from New Orleans and the surrounding areas due to Hurricane Katrina, as well as the affected population in Baton Rouge. Residents from LSU’s Internal Medicine Department, supervised by faculty from LSU and the Earl K. Long Hospital, will staff the clinic. The clinic will begin seeing patients on Monday, October 3.

AmeriCares is providing the necessary medicines, medical equipment and supplies to get the clinic fully operational. Equipment donated by AmeriCares includes a cardiology machine, sterilizer, stethoscopes, thermometers, microscopes, gloves, syringes and other critical supplies; as well as exam tables and other office equipment.

Complementing the medical contributions is a donation of computer equipment arranged by AmeriCares volunteer physician, Chip Skowron of FrontPoint Healthcare of Greenwich, CT. Skowron, who traveled with AmeriCares to Baton Rouge in early September, met with the LSU staff to help determine the medical and technological needs for the new facility. He arranged for FrontPoint Partners to purchase and configure the equipment to interface with LSU’s existing technology system to ensure immediate communication and record-keeping capabilities.

“The rapid and efficient development of this clinic occurred in large part because of the cooperative efforts of several groups or organizations,” said Dr. George Karam, program director of the LSU Internal Medicine Residency. “Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center provided the free use of the clinic and office space. Physician and nursing staffing were arranged through LSU’s New Orleans and Baton Rouge Internal Medicine Residency Programs and the LSU School of Nursing. The development of the on-site pharmacy services was facilitated by the Louisiana State Board of Pharmacy and implemented through local, state, and national volunteer pharmacists. The generous contributions and expertise of AmeriCares worked in a strongly synergistic way to provide essential elements that facilitated the expeditious opening of this clinic.”

AmeriCares has mounted a comprehensive relief effort across the Gulf Coast in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, delivering approximately $4 million in relief supplies in the past month. In total, more than 45 shipments of much needed antibiotics and other medicines, medical supplies, bottled water, nutritional supplements, cleaning supplies and personal care items have been shipped and distributed to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. AmeriCares relief personnel remain in Louisiana, where the AmeriCares Free Clinics mobile health unit is treating patients in New Orleans as other teams respond to needs in the Baton Rouge area.

To support AmeriCares hurricane relief efforts, log onto www.americares.org, or call AmeriCares directly at 1-800-486-HELP (4357).