海角社区

With the new Center for Medical Education and Emerging Viral Threats more than 75 percent complete and on track to open this fall, students and leaders at 海角社区 Health Shreveport are starting to see the impact the new building will have on them, their careers and health in north Louisiana.

海角社区 Health Shreveport student Bailey LeGrande is working toward a bachelor鈥檚 degree in cardiopulmonary science. In some ways, she鈥檚 a typical 海角社区HS student, but in other ways she鈥檚 one in 35 million. From Lake End, Louisiana near Natchitoches, LeGrande comes from a large family with four brothers and three sisters. Apart from her eldest sister who is a registered nurse, LeGrande is the only one in her family to pursue a career in healthcare. Her motivation to join the medical field came from personal experience. In 2015, LeGrande was diagnosed with an extremely rare blood disorder that changed her life in unexpected ways and put her in and out of clinics throughout high school.

鈥淭hey told me I鈥檓 one in 35 million to have this,鈥� LeGrande said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what first introduced me to a healthcare setting, the huge need for all kinds of different skills and specialties, and real insight into how the healthcare system is set up鈥攈ow healthcare workers do their job and how it can be a great workplace where I knew I鈥檇 have job security and job satisfaction from helping others.鈥�

LeGrande will graduate from the 海角社区HS School of Allied Health Professions ready to take her board exams as a respiratory therapist but also with the ability to train on the job to become a cardiac sonographer, also called echocardiographer or 鈥渆cho tech,鈥� which is an even more specialized field.

鈥淲e use ultrasound to image the heart,鈥� LeGrande said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 something I鈥檓 focusing on, but I鈥檓 also considering a master鈥檚 degree to become a perfusionist. That鈥檚 the person running the heart-lung bypass machine during open heart surgery.鈥�

Either way, LeGrande sees herself staying and working in the Shreveport area after she graduates.

鈥淚 come from a huge family and my grandparents are still living so I want to stay close and be here for them,鈥� LeGrande said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 pretty typical of students from this area, I think. Wanting to take care of your own.鈥�  

In this way, LeGrande exemplifies 海角社区HS鈥檚 reasoning in seeking state investment in the new 155,000-square-foot Center for Medical Education and Emerging Viral Threats. 海角社区HS received $18.7 million in additional support toward completion of the center from the Louisiana legislature last year, as well as $2.1 million to expand and modernize its Gross Anatomy Lab with at least 50 dissection stations, pathology cameras and state-of-the-art ventilation.  

鈥淲e create our own workforce here in northwest Louisiana鈥攚e train, educate and grow our own excellence for this region and for our state,鈥� said 海角社区HS Vice Chancellor of External Affairs and Chief of Staff Markey Pierre.

The new Center for Medical Education will be the first new building on the 海角社区HS campus in more than 15 years. It replaces and expands on facilities built in 1970, before cell phones and internet and the emergence of new educational technologies鈥攅specially digital and audiovisual, but also accessible and multimodal ones鈥攂egan placing higher demands on physical structures.  

For the first time, students from the School of Medicine, the School of Allied Health Professions and the Graduate School will be learning and training together under one roof.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been in separate buildings, so we鈥檝e barely seen each other,鈥� LeGrande said. 鈥淭he new center will allow us to work together in teams, more like in the real world where you have doctors, nurses, techs and therapists working together. I鈥檓 especially excited about the new simulation labs that will give students more hands-on experience and ability to communicate and work as a team for more patient-centered care. As a result, whenever someone goes to a hospital in this region years from now, their care is going to be better and more seamless.鈥�

On the medical school side, 海角社区HS student cohorts have grown incrementally over the past 50 years from 32 to 150. Yet, the homegrown supply of new physicians, with as many as half of all 海角社区HS medical students going on to practice in Louisiana, still struggles to meet state demands. All but six of the state鈥檚 64 parishes are medically underserved, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The classrooms in the new center will be able to accommodate up to 250 while the auditorium can hold 500.

鈥淥ur best way to meet Louisiana鈥檚 growing needs for care is to educate more healthcare professionals,鈥� Pierre said. 鈥淎s an example, our fourth-year medical students go through a matching process for residency and what we found is that when you train and do your residency here, 70-75 percent choose to stay in northwest Louisiana because they want to spend the rest of their lives here. This improves the health of our citizens and creates sustainable economic growth for our region.鈥�

For every new doctor who joins the workforce in Louisiana, there is an additional $2 million in economic impact and spinoff effects that lead to the creation of 12 new jobs. While the cost to build the new center amounts to a total of $84 million, the expected growth of 海角社区HS educational programs and their associated economic impact on the state鈥攅nabled by the new center鈥攁re estimated to make up for the entire building cost in as little as three years.

Amir Kaskas is in his third year of medical school at 海角社区HS and the president of the executive council of the medical school student body. He chose to study medicine because of his combined interest in science and research and passion for helping people.

鈥淢edicine is this beautiful intersection of being a people person but working in an evidence-based field,鈥� Kaskas said. 鈥淲hat I love the most about the new center is that it will move us away from lectures to do more team-based learning with increased collaboration within and between classes that normally don鈥檛 interact with each other.鈥�

鈥淭he culture of the school is really collaborative and kind, and that鈥檚 something I think will be more prominently on display in the new space,鈥� Kaskas continued. 鈥淚t will also serve the region better in improving our readiness for future adverse health events, such as pandemics.鈥� 

The new center will have four floors, with the first three dedicated to medical education and the top floor to include the Center for Emerging Vital Threats, or CEVT, and BSL-2 and BSL-3 biosafety labs for the study and diagnosis of pathogens, including potentially hazardous viruses, bacteria, cell cultures, parasites and fungi.  

The CEVT went from conception to operation in just 12 days in March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the state and its hospitals scrambled to get people tested. To date, the CEVT has processed 800K COVID-19 PCR tests, delivered over 130K vaccines and sequenced more than 17K SARS-CoV-2 genomes to track the evolution of the virus that causes the disease. The success of the CEVT, bolstered by the promise of a new home on the 海角社区HS campus, has increased the university鈥檚 competitiveness for large federal grants. Most recently, 海角社区HS received $10.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE, for applied immunology and pathological processes under the leadership of Andrew Yurochko, the CEVT director. The grant confirms 海角社区HS鈥檚 rapid rise as a national leader in the diagnosis, testing and treatment of new viruses and other pathogens.

鈥満＝巧缜� Health Shreveport has been instrumental in getting Louisiana and the country through the pandemic,鈥� said Louisiana Senator Greg Tarver, who is a longtime champion of 海角社区HS and an undertaker by profession. 鈥淲e鈥檙e so fortunate to have it up here. It鈥檚 a cherry for North Louisiana. It drives economic development for this entire region, and I鈥檝e seen it.鈥�

鈥淭he new Center for Medical Education is the greatest thing that could happen up in Shreveport to improve healthcare for all people in this area,鈥� Tarver continued. 鈥淧eople live longer here because of the 海角社区 medical school. Educating and training doctors is good for the health and safety of everyone in our state.鈥�

海角社区 is the primary source of new physicians in Louisiana, which has three medical schools. 海角社区 Health Shreveport graduates 150 doctors each year while New Orleans School of Medicine graduates 200 and Tulane University School of Medicine graduates 190. Two out of every three physicians in Louisiana are 海角社区 alumni.

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