by Deirdra Richard, Program Director BHG Lake Charles Treatment Center
While we’re not opening a new center, we are re-opening one after months of repairs and renovations. Welcome back BHG Lake Charles! Let’s give a huge shout out and thank-you to the Lake Charles Treatment Center team who not only made this possible, but who cared for patients over the past six months amidst their own traumatic events and hardships from Hurricane Laura and the pandemic.
In fact, in its first month re-opening, Lake Charles’s daily census is more than 400 patients, a remarkable achievement compared to their post-hurricane high of slightly more than 550.
In the aftermath of the storm, we had so many questions. Will we rebuild? Can we rebuild? How will we protect and serve our patients in a time of uncertainty? Somehow, the answer was always “yes, we will find a way.” It was a collaborative effort across the entire company to completely rebuild the center which re-opened March 15.
It was obvious that our real estate and clinical teams would be called into immediate action. But we also had our call center and IT teams help with the heavy lifting.
“The Lake Charles center lost all of their equipment in the storm. Within a few days, we sent laptops and all the wireless devices they needed to set up for remote capacity. We redirected phones to the Downtown New Orleans center. Quite a few patients had to leave because of damage to their homes and showed up at some of our other centers as far away as Georgia. Everybody played a big role in getting Lake Charles ready to re-open as quickly as possible,” said Paul Di Vincenzo, CTO of BHG.
We’re proud of you and thankful for you. There are many patients who may not have had access to treatment in Lake Charles if not for your dedication.
We can’t wait to see all of the good ways you continue to help folks get back on their feet!