Catherine O’Neal

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL MEDICINE-IN FECTIOUS DISEASE, OUR LADY OF THE LAKE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER CATHERINE O’NEAL -

BIO

Hometown: Mamou Age: 45 Family: Husband, Hollis O’Neal, and three children (16, 13 and 10) Years with company: 13 years MILESTONES

2009: Completes fellowship in infectious disease from Vanderbilt University. 2012: Becomes medical director of infection prevention for Our Lady of the Lake. 2018: Develops a citywide mycobacterial clinical case conference to address clinical gaps in the treatment of mycobacterial infection in the Baton Rouge region. March 2020: Is named chief medical officer for OLOL. 2020: Serves on the Louisiana Legislative Advisory Task Force on Economic Recovery. 2020-’22: Is a co-leader of the SEC medical task force.

Q&A

Proudest accomplishment

My work over the past two years regarding COVID-19, helping to ensure the safety of health care workers by establishing protocols and securing supply lines and adequate PPE.

Life-changing experience

My grandmother was on hospice in our home when I was in high school. That experience helped me understand the importance of a medical home and of wraparound medical services that help families provide comfort to their loved ones while continuing the necessities of their everyday lives (like going to work and school). That was the most fulfilling medical experience I’ve had in my lifetime.

Inspiration or mentor

My college agriculture teacher, who taught me to work hard to achieve what many small-town kids feel is impossible. Also, my infectious disease and infection control mentor, Dr. Tom Talbot. He is a true mentor who continues to look out for opportunities for my own growth and answers my phone calls when I am panicked. He also told me to be ready for pandemic!

“I’ve learned repeatedly in my career that being accessible and being there for others has provided some of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”

As a kid on a family farm outside the town of Mamou, Catherine “Katie” O’Neal had no idea that her career direction would be influenced by the birth of a calf.

Her uncle had fallen gravely ill months after assisting the calf’s delivery. Bedridden for weeks, he was weak, tired and too sick to work. Relief came only after a retired physician friend stopped by for a visit, and diagnosed him with brucellosis, a rare bacterial infection that can sometimes transfer from infected farm animals to humans. Two weeks of antibiotics restored his health, and the event became a cautionary tale among O’Neal’s family.

“My dad would say, ‘if you’re not wearing gloves, you’re not helping,’” O’Neal recalls.

Science captivated O’Neal, who would go on to attend medical school at the LSU Health Sciences Center. But it was the early exposure to infectious disease on the family farm that drew her to the study of infectious disease. O’Neal completed an infectious disease fellowship at Vanderbilt University, later returning to Baton Rouge to serve as an associate professor at LSU, as well as a clinician and medical director of infection control and prevention at Our Lady of the Lake. Then on March 3, 2020, she was named the regional medical center’s chief medical officer.

Within weeks of her promotion, of course, life changed dramatically. O’Neal and her colleagues knew what to expect from the spread of the novel coronavirus; she’d studied the infectious disease process for years. Still, it didn’t prepare her or her colleagues for the level of planning, care and strategy that was required to get Louisiana through the next year and a half. Nor did O’Neal predict that she would become the state’s most impassioned advocate for the COVID-19 vaccine, even as many Louisianans practiced defiant resistance.

Now, with the worst of the pandemic in the rear view, O’Neal has only recently begun to reflect on the period.

“It was a whirlwind, and we’ve only just been able to look back and think about it,” O’Neal says. “I cannot say enough about our team. They were just incredible.”

Managing care related to the coronavirus will remain a focus for O’Neal, but she has many other items on her agenda, too, including major initiatives to expand cancer and neuromedical care. The hospital system is also heavily focused on fortifying the workforce pipeline for health care workers. OLOL has invested significantly across several institutions, including FranU, LSU and Baton Rouge Community College, to expand the number of future qualified health care workers badly needed by Louisiana hospitals. O’Neal also keeps clinic hours one day a week, treating patients suffering from infections.

“I do it because that’s where my heart is,” she says. “And I can go into a conference room informed about what our clinicians need.”

O’Neal has also found time to create an enviable bucolic home life. She and her husband, Bud, a critical care pulmonologist, and their three children live on their own small family farm, complete with chickens, a few livestock and a recently born calf. The family gets up at 5 a.m. for work, school and a lumberjack breakfast. And on weekends, there are plenty of chores to do.

“Being out there relieves stress,” O’Neal says. “I’d rather work out a problem in my head pulling weeds than anything else.”

ai165038931114_BRBR-HB-newbank-smaller.pdf 6 4/19/2022 12:28:32 PM —Maggie Heyn Richardson