Local industry strives to offer exceptional care
Shreveport-Bossier City, La. – At the forefront of healthcare in the three-state region of Northwest Louisiana, East Texas and Southern Arkansas, Louisiana’s Other Side boasts premiere medical facilities and top-tier providers in a variety of disciplines.
But Shreveport-Bossier also offers the infrastructure and services highly-sought by the industry professionals that bring their meetings and conferences to the sister cities annually.
Among this year’s events, the Hilton Hotel Shreveport will host the Louisiana Society of Health System Pharmacists’ annual conference, Oct. 20, and Sam’s Town Hotel & Casino Shreveport will welcome the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association for its 2012 LVMA Equine Committee Annual Meeting Sept. 23-25.
Visitors won’t have to look far to see the influence of the medical industry in Shreveport-Bossier. The cities are home to three hospital systems that strive to enhance the quality of life of scores of residents throughout the region.
Among them is the LSU Health Shreveport.
LSU Health Shreveport has operated in the community since 1876, and now has nearly 6,000 employees. As Louisiana’s first teaching hospital, LSU Medical Center is a major referral center that provides advanced healthcare services to residents in north Louisiana, east Texas and southern Arkansas. The public university hospital and medical school complex is one of only 120 institutions in the U.S. qualified for the designation of academic health sciences center.
“We are both the safety net hospital and the tertiary care provider,” said Sally Croom, Executive Director of Communications for LSU Health Shreveport. “We care for the needs of a special population, the underserved, and the specialty needs of the entire population.”
From a charity hospital, the facility has grown to include an academic medical center with a school of allied health professionals, a medical school and a facility that boasts research and patient care activities, Croom said.
“Healthcare has benefitted from innovation and technology changes,” she said. “Our academic medical center is now a tertiary care hospital with experts in many specialties and the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center.”
Also operating in Shreveport-Bossier are CHRISTUS Schumpert and Willis-Knighton Health Systems.
According to the Louisiana Hospital Association’s Hospitals and the Louisiana Economy, 2011 report, the healthcare sector in the Shreveport-Bossier metro area, including DeSoto Parish, provided jobs for 31,727 employees and accounts for 11.8 percent of healthcare employees statewide. Regionally, hospital employees make up 10.6 percent of total employment.
“By engaging our local legislators and major business entities we now have support from community, state, and business leaders for our vision,” said LSU Health Sciences Center Chancellor Dr. Robert A. Barish. “Our mayor has said we want to be the “next great city of the South,” and I say you can’t achieve that unless you have a great academic health center.”
Plan your next meeting in Shreveport-Bossier City
Conveniently located in the northwestern corner of the state, Interstates 20 and 49 intersect at Shreveport-Bossier City, making the destination easily accessible by car, and the award-winning Shreveport Regional Airport is serviced by American, Allegiant, United and Delta.
Shreveport and Bossier City boasts nearly 10,000 hotel rooms, a multi-purpose, state-of-the-art convention center, five riverboat casinos and a horseracing track and a host of unique, alternative meeting sites ready to suite your needs.
Located in the heart of downtown, the Shreveport Convention Center features more than 350,000 square feet of meeting space and an a conveniently attached 313-room Hilton Hotel. Flexible in its design, the facility can be tailored to meet any group's needs, from major conventions and trade shows to intimate gatherings such as wedding receptions and banquets – while also having the capacity to support several different groups at one time. For a more intimate affair, your group can enjoy dinner, an IMAX show and access to more than 200 hands-on exhibits at Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center or meet amid the beauty of more than 30,000 roses at the American Rose Center – just to name a few.
For more information about planning your next meeting on Louisiana’s Other Side, call 800-551-8682 or visit www.louisianasotherside.com/meetings.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment