Ochsner Health-Community Benefit Report

Voices of the Community

Who We Are

Ochsner Health is an integrated healthcare system with a mission to serve, heal, lead, educate and innovate. We are committed to inspiring healthier lives and stronger communities. Our core values, the beliefs and commitments we make to one another, are central to who we are and what we do.

Our values – which prioritize patients and emphasize integrity, compassion, inclusivity, teamwork and striving for excellence – guide our decisions, inspire our actions and influence our relationships with patients, colleagues and the people who live in our communities.

36,000+

47 370+ 4,600+

2021 Community Benefit Impact

In 2021 Ochsner Health’s community benefit represented 7.12% of the organization’s total expenses, reinforcing our commitment to healthier communities and further driving health equity throughout the Gulf South. These figures include reporting from Ochsner Clinic Foundation and Ochsner Lafayette General.

$8.4 million Cash and In-Kind Donations

Cost of cash and in-kind donations to any charities that perform a community need related to furthering Ochsner Health’s mission and services.

$11.3 million Health Professions Education

Cost associated with Ochsner Health’s academics and education division. It includes The University of Queensland – Ochsner Clinical School program, residency programs, allied health programs and continuing medical education.

$12.5 million Research

Cost of groundbreaking medical research with local, national and worldwide reach.

$42.6 million Financial Assistance at Cost Cost of financial assistance to uninsured and underinsured patients.

$8 million Community Health Improvement Services

Cost of community health improvement, outreach and donation efforts, communitybuilding activities and other services and initiatives that strengthen health and equity for local communities.

Uncovering Our Communities’ Greatest Health Needs

A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) helps us better understand where and why health outcomes differ across a region, how a variety of health factors combine to influence these outcomes, and how current policies and programs are supporting, or restricting, opportunities to improve health for everyone.

Our CHNA was informed by more than 5,500 community surveys, 16 focus groups and interviews with 110 community stakeholders.

$390.8M in community benefit

$308 million Medicaid, Medicare, and Subsidized Health Services

Costs of providing services to Medicaid and Medicare patients, and the cost of operating clinics that met a designated community need and operate at a financial loss. This primarily includes community clinics in areas where access to care is a concern.

Community input in the CHNA process allowed us to determine which significant health needs should be prioritized in our Community Health Improvement Planning process. They include:

1. Access to and Continuity of Care

2. Health Equity and Discrimination in Healthcare

3. Education and Health Literacy

4. Mental and Behavioral Health

5. Poverty and Economic Opportunity

Ochsner Health is listening to our communities. On the following pages, you’ll discover more about what we heard and how we’re responding.

Access to & Continuity of Care

WHAT WE HEARD

of the survey respondents disagreed with the statement, “Individuals and families can get the support they need during times of stress and hardship.” OVER

½

[The] transportation system is a nightmare because it’s an all-day deal. You only have an appointment for 15 minutes, but you spend four hours in transportation to get there. Then you have to wait, then it’s another four hours to get home. You have an eight-hour day just for one doctor’s appointment.

of the survey respondents disagreed with the statement, “Everyone in my community can access the healthcare they need.” 6 IN 10

HOW WE HAVE RESPONDED

“ It becomes kind of a concern that when they want to seek out professional medical treatment, they can’t find somebody that will actually accept their insurance.”

HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR

“Staying healthy is expensive.”

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE, JEFFERSON PARISH

“

By prioritizing community engagement through forums and events – like The Big Health Event offered in partnership with The Urban League of Louisiana – we can empower people with education and provide them access to tools for living healthier lives. This leads to healthier communities and ultimately to a healthier state.”

YVENS LABORDE, MD, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AT OCHSNER

+ Healthy Schools

The mission of the Ochsner Healthy Schools Program is to improve equitable access to care and wellness while fostering a healthy and supportive school environment for all. We support children’s physical and emotional well-being in a school-based setting, while extending support to the educators and school leaders who have been impacted by the challenges and uncertainty of the past two years. Our trained medical professionals on campus can help identify children struggling with chronic physical and mental health conditions and connect them to Ochsner’s comprehensive healthcare system.

Healthy Schools provides:

• Hearing and vision screenings for students

• CPR training for staff

161 schools with 99,428 total students enrolled in our program across the Greater New Orleans region, the Northshore and Mississippi.

Ochsner’s School Nurse Program now includes 17 partner schools with 12 school nurses in Jefferson, New Orleans and St. Tammany parishes, who completed 15,000 visits in 2022.

Two school-based health centers in Jefferson Parish had 1,951 registered students and more than 4,000 visits and 1,244 physicals completed by clinical staff.

Our partnership with Ochsner has demonstrated many benefits for our students and the families of Jefferson Parish. Ochsner supports two of our school-based health centers by fully covering the cost of nurse practitioner positions, providing medical supplies, and providing medical directors at a reduced cost and a liaison to assist us with planning wellness activities for our students and staff.

EDNA METCALF, LCSW-BACS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HEALTH & RELATED SERVICES AT JPPSS

• Connections to important community resources like:

+ Nutrition education

+ Tobacco use prevention

+ Free virtual mental health visits for teachers and staff assisting students through grade 12 1

+ Resources and webinars for neurodiverse students 2

+ Yoga, mindfulness and anxiety management classes

+ STEM activities

+ Career chats

1 Through a partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education

2 Through a partnership with the Michael R. Boh Center for Child Development

+ The Big Health Event

• Ochsner Health physicians were on-site, responding directly to community health and wellness questions.

• Ochsner also offered Eat Fit healthy cooking demonstrations in the Culinary Zone; a Career Café focused on workforce development and talent acquisition; supplier diversity education; and an exciting Kids’ Zone with STEM-focused educational outreach, reaching 344+ children.

• In the Movement Zone, Ochsner Fitness Center transformed the convention center space into a gym.

+ Tobacco Cessation Program

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of premature death and is the leading risk factor for cancer, lung disease, hypertension and heart disease, which are major health issues in Louisiana. Louisiana ranks at or near the bottom of most health indexes with the third-highest mortality rate for cancer and the fourth-highest rate of smoking.

community health screenings and educational interactions were provided

1,146

3,419+ community members attended

This first Healthy State community-focused event, presented by the Urban League of Louisiana and Ochsner Health, was specifically designed to address many of the identified drivers adversely affecting Louisiana’s health ranking, such as chronic conditions, smoking, physical inactivity and obesity.

“The ULL was pleased to partner with Ochsner Health for the inaugural Big Health Event,” said Judy Reese Morse, President and CEO, Urban League of Louisiana. “The event made a huge impact on more than 1,100 people, giving them access to healthcare, medical information and an opportunity to prioritize health and wellness. We left the day feeling inspired and more deeply committed to advancing health equity. The event also showed the connection between health and other social determinants, while centering community input and feedback.”

• Ochsner currently has 34 free smoking cessation centers that have treated 24,000+ patients, as well as virtual groups.

• We serve 8,000+ patients annually who are actively trying to quit with our program.

• In 2022, the program’s 12-month quit rate was 31.4%, more than twice the national average.

• We reached 62,000+ Louisiana residents through educational materials.

• In 2022, we began working with schools across southern Louisiana, providing vaping education to 15,000+ students and launching the first-ever vaping intervention program in St. Charles Parish.

The Big Health Event featured physicians and community leaders focused on inspiring healthier living.

+ Community Health Centers

Ochsner has opened five Community Health Centers across the state, supported by a $5 million gift from the Brees Dream Foundation. These health centers employ a holistic, multidisciplinary approach that addresses patients’ social needs alongside their medical ones. Making progress means breaking down barriers to access while aligning with distinct community needs in a culturally competent manner. This is accomplished through extended hours on evenings and weekends, Community Health Workers, transportation partnerships, and providing signage, materials and services in multiple languages.

3,000+

16,718

patients served by Community Health Workers patient visits to date

Ochsner

38%

+ Mobile Units/Community Health Screenings

• Provided mobile COVID testing and vaccine units across Greater New Orleans, which were also used as disaster relief units after hurricanes and tornadoes.

• Launched the custom mobile health unit Jag Mobile in partnership with the School of Nursing at Southern University in Baton Rouge. Services had a specific focus on serving people who are underinsured, uninsured or have inadequate access to community services.

• The Be Well Bus, a partnership with Slidell Memorial Hospital and Healthier Northshore, provides health screenings at community events and preventive outreach throughout the Northshore.

• Ochsner LSU Health provides a mobile mammography unit at health events and community organizations.

• Ochsner hosted 1,340+ community vaccination events, providing lifesaving shots across Mississippi and Louisiana, including our 24-hour, drive-through Vax Fest — the biggest vaccine event in Louisiana’s history. To create vaccine events designed for Louisiana’s unique populations, Ochsner assembled an internal equitable vaccine committee made up of Ochsner employee resource group officers, clinical experts and regional diversity leaders who worked closely with community organizations and leaders.

• Through a partnership with Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Ochsner provided walk-up vaccination appointments seven days a week, open to all eligible travelers, as well as more than 4,000 airport employees.

• Ochsner established vaccination clinics in local shopping malls and teamed up with the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Uber to provide 20,000 rides to local vaccination sites for community members with transportation issues.

Community Health Center employees helped vaccinate community members at a Brees Family Center.

partners with Lyft to support patients with transportations concerns in areas of high need. In 2022, 909 rides were given to patients to the Community Health Centers.

98% of patients are enrolled in Digital Medicine

of patient messages answered the same day

Health Equity & Discrimination in Healthcare

WHAT YOU TOLD US

I think there’s still that inequity in the healthcare system, whether it is with people of color or the LGBTQ community. There needs to be competence in how to provide services that are needed, to make people comfortable enough to get services. There needs to be that intention to invest in the training that’s needed and to be a more diverse workforce, to reflect the communities that you treat.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

+ Focusing on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

• DEI education and training programs launched systemwide, including some focused on unconscious bias.

• A newly implemented language access plan ensures that Ochsner Health Services will provide access to appropriate communication for patients, authorized representatives and other individuals who are limited English proficient or are deaf/hard of hearing.

• 10 Ochsner Resource Groups have been established to highlight and build an appreciation for the differences that make employees stronger and to address the need of every individual to feel valued.

+ Addressing Social Determinants of Health

If a social service cannot be provided by Ochsner Health, Unite Us is a community resource referral platform that allows Ochsner team members to connect patients with communitybased resources and close gaps for patients’ non-clinical needs.

4,000+

patients have received services from Community Health Workers, who serve in Ochsner primary care clinics and Community Health Centers, as well as work telephonically as an extension of the case management team.

2,096

patients have been referred using the Unite Us platform, with 5,025 referrals to community services.

“ There are things that they’re not going to do to a person who’s from here [American]. They’re not going to do that to a person who has documents. They do it because it’s us, and we don’t have documents.”

FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT

PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT, NORTHSHORE

ABLE supplied 500 backpacks for a back-to-school giveaway at Joe Brown Park.

+ Ochsner-Xavier Institute for Health Equity and Research

OXIHER combines the resources of Ochsner and Xavier University of Louisiana – and their network of partners – to conduct research and provide education around best practices for eliminating health disparities, offer provider education on health equity and population health, and help build a diverse and inclusive pipeline of healthcare providers. Some key accomplishments in the last year included:

Outcomes Research

• A Master Data Sharing and Use Agreement granting Xavier faculty access to Ochsner Health’s electronic medical record data for research

• The hiring of four data scientists who can provide project-specific data analytics for Xavier faculty

• The hiring of three recent Xavier graduates for the Research Apprenticeship Program at Ochsner

• Five $10,000 pilot research grants awarded to Xavier faculty for collaborations with Ochsner investigators

OXIHER Community Engagement

• In 2021: 65+ events reached 25,450 attendees, most of which focused on health screenings, COVID-19 vaccinations and disseminating COVID-19 information to socially disadvantaged populations

• Through September 2022: 54 community outreach and education events with 11,076 attendees, with tobacco cessation and cancer prevention, early diagnosis and treatment as major focus

Population Health

• Launched an internship for Xavier Master of Public Health students

• Xavier physician assistant student clinical externships at Ochsner Community Health Centers

• Launched Ochsner’s health equity data and quality improvement strategy

Health Education & Health Careers

• A new Master of Science in Health Informatics degree program at Xavier

• Appointment of two Xavier faculty liaisons for health outcomes and informatics research Health Advocacy

• Medicaid expansion of tobacco cessation coverage to all Medicaid enrollees

• Speaking engagements at the Maternal Health Call to Action Summit at the White House

• Assistance with Ochsner’s Maternal Health Briefing, which advocated for increasing access to evidence-based digital health technology

+ Promoting Practices to Reduce Maternal Morbidity

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy countries, and the risk is particularly high for Black women, who are more than three times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related complications.

As Director of the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative, Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell is helping hospitals in the state become “Birth Ready” by adopting practices to reduce maternal morbidity, especially for conditions like hypertension that disproportionately affect Black women.

16 Louisiana hospitals have earned the “Birth Ready” designation, including four Ochsner facilities.

Dr. Gillispie-Bell is also a champion of using telehealth to reach patients in rural areas. Since 2015, she has been using Ochsner’s Connected MOM (Maternity Online Monitoring) technology, which provides digital tools patients can use to take their blood pressure and other readings and transmit results electronically to their care teams.

Dr. Gillispie-Bell

Economic Opportunity & Poverty

COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES

We’re a poor state. Eight to nine times out of 10, somebody in your past has had some sort of economic struggle. Most people are touched by it in some way or another, regardless of where you live, city or rural.

ANSWERING THE CALL

+ Giving Back

Fighting Food Insecurity & Rebuilding Communities

As part of the Healthy State Initiative, the Food Insecurity Workgroup is working with state and community partners to connect the community to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, community gardens, food pantries and other innovative food access options.

survey respondents disagreed with the statement, “All workers in my community make the minimum income necessary to meet basic needs.”

survey

Through the OchsnerServes Employee Volunteerism program, we empower full-time employees to get involved in their communities with easy-to-access volunteer events and opportunities by offering paid community service time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, OchsnerServes provided volunteers for COVID testing sites and for virtual volunteering opportunities. Ochsner volunteers also helped “Stamp Out Hunger” in Louisiana during Second Harvest Food Bank’s annual food drive event and partnered with Second Harvest to distribute Thanksgiving meals and groceries.

The outmigration of young professionals is a challenge because if they get their education and move away to a larger urban area that feels like it has more opportunity, there goes knowledge that could be harnessed for improvements in local health.

After Hurricane Ida, OchsnerServes mobilized to help in rebuilding efforts throughout affected areas. Volunteers and leaders assisted with passing out hot meals and groceries, rebuilding homes with Rebuilding Together New Orleans and rebuilding the STEM Library Lab.

In support of Governor John Bel Edwards’ statewide initiative “Love the Boot, Don’t Pollute,” we participated in service opportunities dedicated to city cleanup and beautification projects around Ochsner’s campuses and in other regions of the community.

78,000

Approximately pounds of fresh produce, shelf-stable groceries and an assortment of meat were distributed to those in need

2,668

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE, ORLEANS/JEFFERSON PARISHES

“ You can be in a food desert, and it doesn’t matter how much money you make. If your grocery store doesn’t have good quality stuff, it’s worthless to make those healthy decisions.”

NGO EMPLOYEE, JEFFERSON PARISH, WEST BANK

PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT, BAYOU REGION

7 IN 10 6 IN 10

respondents disagreed with the statement, “All people in my community have access to healthy, nutritious foods.”

OchsnerServes volunteers spent half a day at Second Harvest Food Bank helping to lead the fight against hunger in South Louisiana. individuals were fed

+ Workforce Development

Supporting Scholars Who Will Stay Local

In 2021, Ochsner Health launched the Ochsner Scholars program to address workforce shortages –one of the pillars of Ochsner’s 10-year vision for a healthier state. Supported by a $30 million investment, the program covers medical school expenses for LSU Health Shreveport and The University of Queensland –Ochsner Clinical School students who choose to practice psychiatry or primary care in Louisiana with Ochsner Health. The program encourages students from underrepresented and lower socioeconomic groups to participate.

Expanding Nursing and Allied Health Opportunities

To combat ongoing shortages in nursing and allied health, which were exacerbated by the pandemic, we have made a 10-year, $15 million investment in tuition, workforce development and training programs for those professions.

Through our partnerships with Louisiana’s community and technical colleges, the funding will positively impact more than 3,000 students, including Ochsner employees, within the first 5 years.

In February 2021, Ochsner launched a partnership with Delgado Community College. Our $20 million investment will cover full-time tuition for Ochsner employees pursuing a nursing or allied health certificate or degree at Delgado while helping to build a state-ofthe-art facility on its City Park Campus.

We are also building programs through our new partnership with Terrebonne General Health System and Fletcher Technical Community College. Through $1 million investments from both Terrebonne General and Ochsner, the college will expand its nursing and allied health programs and construct a new facility. This partnership more than tripled the Fletcher program’s enrollment capacity while more than doubling the size of its faculty. These partnerships build on workforce development initiatives already underway, such as the Xavier University Physician Assistant Program, in partnership with Ochsner, which welcomed its inaugural class of 39 students in January 2020.

Opening Doors to Healthcare Options

Since 2013, the workforce development team has been working to increase healthcare employment for unemployed and underemployed members of the community. They recruit and educate interested community members through free programs, including the pharmacy technician apprenticeship, hospital inpatient coding apprenticeship, patient care technician (PCT) program, medical assistant (MA) NOW customized training program and MA-to-licensed practical nurse (LPN) apprenticeship program.

$20M

investment to cover full-time tuition for Ochsner employees pursuing a nursing or allied health degree at Delgado.

$1M

925

invested to expand nursing and allied health programs at Fletcher Technical Community College as well as support construction of a new facility.

Creation of the Ochsner Scholars program to address critical clinician shortages in key areas, which welcomed 5 physicians and 249 nurses since inception in 2021.

individuals have participated in Ochsner Workforce Development programs

141 high school sophomores completed year one of the high school nursing pre-apprenticeship

121 completed IMPACT training to gain professional skills

16 completed the MA-to-LPN program

29 trained as Community Health Workers

6 trained as Certified Nursing Assistants

Health Literacy & Education

A CLEAR NEED FOR BETTER HEALTH EDUCATION

[There are some that] don’t know how to read and write, and they don’t want to tell you that... You can put out the best brochures, but not everyone is able to read them.

7 IN 10

survey respondents disagreed with the statement, “All children in my community receive high-quality education.”

RESPONDING WITH RESOURCES

+ Education Outreach

Since 2005, Education Outreach (EO) has served the community and maintained Ochsner’s position as a global academic leader by supporting educational development, providing unique academic resources, and connecting K-12 students and teachers with innovative academic opportunities in STEM education and early workforce pipeline development.

Working with internal stakeholders that include Ochsner Diversity & Inclusion, Academics, Workforce Development and Research, programming is developed to increase equitable access to high-quality learning, connect classrooms to careers, drive student achievement and enhance STEM literacy.

Each year, this programming impacts around 10,000 participants with 150+ events, totaling 13,000+ hours of education for students and teachers.

For programs with a higher emphasis on STEM skills, students show a 57% increase in science knowledge, and 97% of teachers noted that Ochsner-led teacher professional development workshops provided ideas for making science relevant to students’ everyday lives.

96%

Since 2005 students have been reached, with mentorship hours.

50,000+ 20,000+ of students indicate a higher interest in pursuing a healthcare career after participation.

NGO DIRECTOR, ST. MARY

2022 STAR Summer Scholars gathered in the student laboratory located at OMC – New Orleans.

+ Ochsner Eat Fit

Ochsner Eat Fit is a non-profit initiative designed to help community members live their healthiest, strongest lives. Eat Fit dietitians work closely with restaurants, markets, food festivals and more to identify and develop dishes that meet the Eat Fit nutritional criteria. Since its creation in 2013, Eat Fit has been 100% free to all restaurants and food service partners.

Eat Fit CHOP: Kids in the Kitchen is a cooking program designed for kids ages 8–18. It provides culinary toolkits, recipes, workbooks and activities to local schools, camps, recreational departments and youth programs.

+ Discovery Schools

The Dr. John Ochsner Discovery (DJOD) Health Sciences Academy is a high-performing, openenrollment, tuition-free, K-8 charter school that prepares a diverse student body to succeed in life and pursue careers in the health sciences industry. Ochsner Health has made a significant investment in education through its partnership with Discovery Schools. The partnership started in 2019, with DJOD opening for students during the 2020-2021 school year.

89.6% 91%

In 2021:

Percentage of customers who believe restaurants have a responsibility to offer healthy options1

• 599 Eat Fit partners throughout Louisiana served 1.2 million Eat Fit meals.

• Of the Eat Fit partners in 2022, 86 were women-owned and 68 were minority-owned businesses.

• 12 schools featured Eat Fit options on their menus.

Percentage of customers who have said that having Eat Fitbranded menu options helped them make healthier food choices1

• Eat Fit presented 115 community events, including nutrition presentations and cooking demos.

• There were 12,000 virtual and 493 in-person participants for Eat Fit’s “Alcohol-Free for 40” challenge.

• Eat Fit CHOP served nearly 500 participants.

1 Restaurant-Based Programming to Improve Healthy Food Access: Eat Fit Program Impact and Factors that Influence Adoption. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Volume 54, July 2022.

+ Ochsner Health Speakers Bureau

The purpose of the Ochsner Health Speakers Bureau is to provide highquality health education to community organizations and business and government leaders throughout Louisiana. In 2021 and 2022, 73 Speakers Bureau events reached over 28,000 people in faith-based communities, social groups, and other non-traditional healthcare spaces.

According to the Louisiana STEM Initiative, over the next 12 years, Louisiana and the nation will see a surge in the number of job opportunities available in STEM fields. However, only 9% of Louisiana students met the ACT STEM College Readiness Benchmark, which reflects the likelihood of student success in STEM-related college outcomes.

This school will help prepare our kids for the future with a strong health sciences curriculum and a focus on STEM education. For the 2021-2022 school year, DJOD opened a brand-new, state-ofthe-art school campus just one mile away from Ochsner Medical Center – Jefferson Highway in the Shrewsbury community.

The new campus will allow us to grow to serve 742 pre-K through 8th grade students by 2023.

Ochsner and Discovery Schools are partnering to open Baton Rouge Ochsner Discovery Health Sciences Academy (BROD) in fall 2023.

An Eat Fit junior chef performed a healthy cooking demonstration at the Big Health Event.

Mental & Behavioral Health

COMMUNITY CONCERNS

I do have some kids with mental and behavioral/ developmental issues, and there is no pediatric speech therapist or occupational therapist in their town. They live way, way out. So, they’re having to try to find transportation, once a week, having to drive 45 minutes there for 45 minutes of therapy and then drive 45 minutes home. So, that’s a barrier to access.

“ The co-occurring disorders and the lack of accessibility to mental health contribute to a lot of our incarceration rates... We try to do a patchwork thing where we put a band-aid on something and we’re not getting to the root.”

RESPONDING WITH RESOURCES

+ Virtual Therapy for Teachers

In an August 2020 survey, nearly 40% of the state’s early childhood educators reported clinically relevant signs of depression – and those results came before the impact of Hurricane Ida and prolonged pandemic-related challenges.

In response, Ochsner Health partnered with the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) to launch a new virtual therapy program. Through the Ochsner Connected Anywhere platform, the program provides access to free mental health virtual visits for more than 166,000 public school educators and support staff statewide. The three-year, $1 million initiative is funded by LDOE through allocations from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund.

+ Support for Adults With Disabilities

Magnolia Community Services is a private, non-profit organization providing support to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Jennifer Archie, MD, is currently the psychiatrist for approximately 60 of Magnolia’s clients – seeing them for regularly scheduled outpatient appointments at Ochsner, as well as offering monthly appointments at Magnolia.

It is critically important that the state provide mental and emotional support for our teachers and support staff who unselfishly give so much of themselves to ensure that education continues for our students during this unprecedented pandemic.

JOHN BEL EDWARDS, LOUISIANA GOVERNOR

PUBLIC OFFICIAL, ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH

+ Ochsner Behavioral Health Services

Ochsner added 31 providers and expanded inpatient, outpatient and integrative behavioral health services across Louisiana’s Northshore, South Shore, Baton Rouge and Bayou regions, including a new women’s perinatal behavioral health outpatient clinic and an adolescent psychiatric unit.

Ochsner expanded statewide behavioral healthcare access by opening Louisiana

Behavioral Health – a new 89-bed facility located in Shreveport, developed through a partnership between Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport and Oceans Healthcare.

+ Mentorship Programs

Ochsner launched the Healthy State of Mind video and podcast series, designed to provide mental health and wellness education on topics ranging from practicing better sleep habits to improving work-life balance. Visit ochsner.org/healthystate-of-mind to learn more.

26,285

unique patients received behavioral health support between January and November of 2022.

Behavioral Health Providers

Ochsner recognizes the potential positive impacts of mentorship on people’s mental health and well-being. Mentors can offer support, help reduce feelings of anxiety and isolation, increase self-confidence, and offer a listening ear and helpful advice.

In 2020, Ochsner Health donated $1 million to Son of a Saint, a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of fatherless boys in New Orleans while also inspiring mentorship. Funds support crucial programmatic staff, including healthcare educators, social workers and mental health providers, and enhance the organization’s services that promote the health of the whole person – mind, body and spirit.

Additionally, Ochsner Resource Groups (ORG) partnered with Healthy Schools to develop in-school youth mentorship programs aligned with the unique cultures and needs of student populations.

Above: Son of a Saint participants spent time connecting and building relationships on a sunny day.

Serving the Community With Sustainability Initiatives

Ochsner Health’s new Office of Sustainability recently launched enterprise-wide sustainability practices to reduce waste and energy consumption, promote resiliency, and create a culture of stewardship.

+ Powerful Partnerships

Our sustainability efforts build upon Ochsner’s past successes through partnerships like the one we have with Bernhard – a landmark, first-of-its-kind energy asset concession arrangement launched in 2017. The Bernhard partnership has enhanced resiliency, reduced energy consumption and saved costs at select Ochsner campuses. The project has generated an annual energy savings of $2.6 million.

Through this partnership, in conjunction with new construction at the Ochsner Medical Center – Jefferson Highway’s West Tower and Ochsner Medical Complex –The Grove, we addressed aging infrastructure, expanded the central plant, upgraded to more efficient boilers and chillers, and added more generators.

Ochsner Baptist launched initiatives through this partnership in 2021 and has already seen a 52% reduction in natural gas usage.

+ A Snapshot of Our Sustainability Efforts

Paper

Shredded paper is hauled to a mill in Natchez for reuse, saving 14,000 trees and 3.6 million gallons of water. Through baled cardboard efforts, Ochsner hospitals have also collected and sold 800,000 pounds of used cardboard to be processed into new paper products.

Supply Reprocessing

Since 2017, medical technology companies Stryker, Cardinal Health and Innovative Health have staged bins in Ochsner’s procedural and inpatient areas to collect supplies like pulse oximeters, EKG leads and compression sleeves. Reprocessing efforts have saved Ochsner $1.1 million this year and avoided 9,700 pounds of landfill waste.

+ Supply Resiliency

SafeSource Direct creates a more resilient, local supply chain and will reduce carbon emissions from international shipping. Ochsner has partnered with Trax Development to manufacture high-quality personal protective equipment through SafeSource Direct right here in Louisiana. This will create a total of more than 2,200 new high-wage jobs, and eliminate lag times, uncertainty and cost associated with dependence on other countries for personal protective equipment.

E-Waste

Over the last four years, laptop recycling has generated an average of $130,000 per year to fund new equipment.

Kenner Discovery Community Garden

Ochsner and Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy teamed up to revitalize a community garden. Children attending the school have access to a top-notch teaching kitchen and can now learn about growing food, composting, cooking garden-grown food and healthy eating. This community garden advances our community partnership, workforce development, sustainability and healthy lifestyle goals.

SafeSource Direct employees worked to manufacture and package gloves.

Helping to Improve the Health of Our State

In 2020, Ochsner Health announced a $100 million investment to address health inequities and expand Louisiana’s healthcare workforce and community-based health services – part of a vision and commitment to create a Healthy State. Together with state leaders, community partners, insurers, schools, employers and others, we are focusing on the health and wellness of the whole person and addressing the most critical health and wellness needs of our Louisiana communities. Through the lens of health equity, Ochsner recognizes health is not merely the absence of disease, but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

SNAPSHOT

$100M invested over five years to address health inequities and expand Louisiana’s healthcare workforce and communitybased health services

5

Five Community Health Centers have been established in underserved areas across Louisiana, serving New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and North Louisiana

Healthy State vision: Working towards a healthier Louisiana.

Partnership with Xavier University to create the Ochsner-Xavier Institute for Health Equity and Research (OXIHER)

Billboards were used to help spread the word about advancing the health of the state of Louisiana.

COLLABORATING TO TRANSFORM LOUISIANA

Ochsner Health is now collaborating with 35 organizations statewide on a common vision and commitment to a better Louisiana – a Healthy State. A 38-member Healthy State Advisory Board recently launched, spanning multiple sectors, businesses and industries. At Ochsner, we recognize that the Healthy State movement is too large and too significant to be impacted by just one organization and that only by combining our expertise, experience and resources can we drive targeted policy, action and investments that will achieve measurable change in transforming the health of Louisiana.

As of 2022, Ochsner Health and our partners have already made significant strides in helping Louisiana become With over 100,000 employees represented, over 200,000 students educated and 4.6 million community members cared for – the collective impact of our advisory board can

ochsner.org/community