Our Lady of the Lake emergency department undergoing $55 million renovation

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Our Lady of the Lake’s emergency department is undergoing a $55 million renovation project intended to increase capacity, cut down on wait times and improve quality for patients and caregivers.

Dr. Mark Laperouse, medical director of emergency services at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, said the project has been in planning for years.

New beds and design

The current phase of construction has been underway for about a year and three months. Laperouse said the hospital expects to receive the space from contractors in February 2027, followed by state licensing, with plans to begin seeing patients in March 2027.

The renovation will add at least 20 monitored beds to the emergency department’s current total of more than 40. Laperouse said the hospital sees between 1,250 and 1,500 patients per bed per year.

“Across the country, hallway care is pretty prominent. Waiting room care is pretty prominent. And we’re doing better than most, especially for large facilities, level one trauma centers, comprehensive stroke centers. But it’s not uncommon to have a hall patient. And so our design is intentionally to eliminate hall space so we won’t ever have that opportunity,” Laperouse said.

Trauma rooms and dedicated CT scanner

Laperouse stood in the area where several new trauma rooms will be located. He referred to the corridor as the “critical runway,” where ambulance patients will enter through dedicated doors and travel down the corridor to five critical rooms for trauma patients and medical resuscitations.

At the end of that corridor will be a dedicated CT scanner for the emergency department, used for time-sensitive illnesses, trauma activations and stroke alerts. Laperouse said the hospital’s other CT scanners will continue operating for routine imaging, such as abdominal pain and chest pain cases, without interruption.

“When they’re bringing a sick patient to us, the number of steps that they have to take to deliver that patient is far fewer. The number of steps that I have to take as the physician going to a trauma is just around the corner instead of down the hallway. All those types of things are really important. So we’re going to maximize the efficiencies of this space,” Laperouse said.

Laperouse said ambulance patients previously had to be brought in from the far side of the department, requiring a minimum of 150 steps to the sickest rooms. Under the new design, ambulance patients and private vehicle patients will arrive from separate entrances, with the waiting room placed in the middle.

Natural light for patients and caregivers

Tarps currently cover sections of the department where clerestory windows will be installed to bring natural light into the space.

“They’ll be able to know, is it day or night? Is it raining or sunshine? That is really important for the mental health of everybody involved,” Laperouse said.

Construction during ongoing operations

The area under construction has been closed off since March. Laperouse said Womack Construction has stayed on schedule.

Laperouse said the hospital used temporary space during construction and worked to ensure care for chest pain, trauma, neurologic, stroke and sepsis patients did not decline during the renovation.

The $55 million project covers 25,000 square feet of a 50,000-square-foot total project. A second phase will follow, focused on cosmetic updates and the waiting room, according to Laperouse.

The renovated department is on schedule to open in March 2027.

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