HOSPITAL: Has had plenty of accomplishements over the years

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• Bo galusa Heart Study Abdomen Pilot: Early life cardiovascular exposures and abdominal fat in middle aged Bogalusa Heart Study participants

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) ECHO Grant – expansion of clinical trials access to rural and underserved children of Louisiana

• NIH MoveUp Grant – a randomized trial aimed at improving COVID-19 vaccine uptake using mHealth tools

• Ryan White IV Women, Infant, Children, Youth and Affected Family Medicine AIDS Healthcare Grant (shared with Lallie Kemp)

• Rise Up Program – Our Lady of the Angels Rise Up program has dramatically impacted the lives of the substance use disorder mother-baby dyad. The program enables mothers and babies to remain togetherin situations that would typically result in these babies removed from their care and placed into the custody of DCFS. Through the referral and treatment program these mothers obtain the necessary resources to successfully care for their newborn at home. They have reduced the use of pharmacological care of opioid exposed newborns. With the implementation of the Eat Sleep Console model, they have effectively reduced the newborn length of stay from a six-week average to 5-14 days. The success of this program is achieved through a dynamic partnership with the mother.

Community Impact

Our Lady of the Angels helped to lead several new and existing initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes, health access awareness, healthcare confidence and the overall standard of living for the people of Washington Parish. They co-launched the Bogalusa Strong healthy community coalition in 2017, with LSU AgCenter and Well Ahead Louisiana. In 2020 they helped to expand the health community coalition work into Franklinton with the launch of FOCUS Franklinton.

Born out of the hospital’s first Community Health Needs Assessment and built around the areas identified by people across the community as priorities, these healthy community coalitions created focused committees and launched numerous ongoing projects.

In addition to the Bogalusa Strong and FOCUS Franklinton community initiatives, Our Lady of the Angels continues health outreaches and community education programs in the Washington Parish Councils on Aging, local churches and schools across Washington Parish. In partnership with the LSU Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, they complete more than 500 pro bono sports physicals for student athletes each year.