BATON ROUGE - Board members for Baton Rouge General's hospitals revealed plans Wednesday to change their Mid-City campus into a specialty center and further develop empty land around their Bluebonnet Campus.

The plans call for BRG Mid-City to focus on caring for the elderly, those with behavioral issues or people recovering from illness or injury. The hospital on Florida Boulevard will include cancer care, rehab facilities, geriatric and psych care, hospice, sleep medicine and drug addiction.

The hospital's inpatient behavioral health sciences will be expanded to include 19 more beds for patients 50 or older with behavioral issues such as dementia or depression. A new program will also provide team-based care to patients with complex medical needs like diabetes or heart disease. Primary care will also be expanded for the Mid City Medical Clinic

"For Baton Rouge and many in our community, closing the Mid City ER was like losing a family member. It took a while for our organization to 're-form' and understand how we can best continue to serve the people regionally," said Board of Trustees Chair Janice Pellar.

Meanwhile, the Bluebonnet campus will focus on emergency and acute critical care, including the Regional Burn Center which is moving from BRG Mid-City. Board members said they also want to expand the campus and create green spaces for patients, staff and visitors to utilize.

The announcement comes after an 18-month strategic planning period, during which time BRG closed the Mid-City emergency room and more recently announced plans to relocate the burn unit.