Construction Begins At New Ochsner Health Center

Ochsner Health System has started construction on its newest health center in Baton Rouge near Bluebonnet Boulevard and Burbank Drive on the south side of the city.

The 11,000-square-foot facility, expected to cost $5.3 million, will have the potential to add another 8,000 square feet since it sits on a 2.1 acre site. The center, which will be located behind the RaceTrac convenience store across the street from the Walmart, is slated to open in the spring.

The center will have 15 exam rooms focused on primary care but also gynecology services and obstetricians on site. The goal is to sell pelvic floor therapy and annual preventative health exams for women. A lab is expected to be in the facility in addition to ultrasound.

The center will to have kiosks and smartphone check-in for patients.

The newest location is the first in a larger expansion effort the New Orleans-based organization announced in recent weeks.

The South Baton Rouge site is "in a growing part of the city", said Eric McMillen, CEO of Ochsner Baton Rouge, noting that its several miles south of LSU's main campus.

The company hired GraceHebert Architects as designers and Lincoln Builders to be the general contractor.

The center is a little over 4 miles from Ochsner Medical Complex High Grove, which opened earlier this year near the Mall of Louisiana. The $116 million complex features a multispecialty clinic and surgical hospital. Ochsner is bullish that the new location won't draw from its other Bluebonnet facility due to population growth and traffic patterns along Burbank in South Baton Rouge.

The land was initially acquired by Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans in March. Benson and her late husband, Tom, have donated to Ochsner in the past. In 2010, the couple chipped in $5 million for the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center at Ochsner's Jefferson facility in addition to another $20 million donation later that year. Ochsner has a cancer center in Baton Rouge, at its medical center at O'Neal Lane and Interstate 12.

Ochsner is leasing the land from New Orleans-based Talbot Realty Group, according to the company.