University Medical Center here in Lafayette is now being headed up by Lafayette General.  UMC will now be known as University Hospital and Clinics as they are now part of the Lafayette General Health System.

The facility's new Chief Executive Officer is Jared L. Stark.  He is presiding over the transition in management of UMC from LSU Health Sciences to Lafayette General Health.

Stark has a background of healthcare management, including most recently transforming a specialty hospital to a full-service community hospital.  He will be responsible for implementing outcome-based practices established at Lafayette General Medical Center to UMC.

Stark says,

“I am excited about the opportunity to join University Medical Center’s team.  I look forward to working with the physicians, nurses, staff and volunteers in providing the highest level of quality care, innovative treatment and service to the residents of Acadiana.”

Stark is from Indiana, and he previously served as Executive Director of Franciscan St. Francis Health in Mooresville, Indiana, a post he held for five years.  Stark oversaw the opening of the emergency room, growth of inpatient services and the development of a new outpatient facility in Mooresville, as well as a new hospital in Carmel, Indiana.

David Callecod, President and CEO of Lafayette General Medical Center visited ‘Mornings With Ken and Bernie‘ to discuss changes that will occur now that University Medical Center is under control of LGMC(Lafayette Medical Center).

According to Callecod,

The state obviously had some budget issues due to the way federal dollars were brought in and they needed to find partners in each community.  In Lafayette we are the largest community owned, not for profit hospital, full service and we have nine other partner hospitals and it just made perfect sense for us to be that partner.

Callecod said it was an easy decision,

I and the Board, we felt a moral obligation once we heard that UMC was going to be closed or dramatically cut.  We felt a moral obligation to step in and figure out a way to insure that the safety-net population could get care.

When asked what patients of UMC could expect in the future Callecod replied,

Patients can expect to be able to have the exact same charity care policy and procedures that have existed at UMC at the new University Hospital and Clinics….The clinics, not only do we expect them to be open but having the ability to see more patients than we did in the past.  Procedurally we’re keeping everything pretty much the same and will do so until January of 2014 when we implement our new computerized EMR, emergency medical records and new business system we’ll put in place.

There will be new residency programs that will improve health care in Lafayette according to Callecod.

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