Latest Weather Blog
A year after Mid City ER closure, it's taking EMS longer to get patients to emergency care
Related Story
BATON ROUGE - Friday marks one year since the emergency room at Baton Rouge General Mid City closed its doors for the final time. Since then, it's taken EMS an average of 90 seconds longer to get patients to an emergency room.
Some say they know firsthand that 90 seconds is the difference between life and death.
Corey Boyd was shot with his own gun on North 31st Street on Mardi Gras Day. Marcus Miller was arrested and charged with murder. Boyd's mother says her son would be alive had the ER at BRG Mid City never closed.
"I think that if he'd have got to that hospital, they would have saved his life," she told News 2's Brett Buffington.
New statistics released to WBRZ Wednesday show that it's taking ambulances an average of 15 minutes, 40 seconds to get patients from the scene to the closest ER. Before BRG Mid City closed, that number was 14 minutes, 11 seconds.
"A year ago, we faced one of the most difficult, heart-wrenching decisions in Baton Rouge General's long history. Since then, we have remained committed to serving our community and have worked diligently to create a sustainable plan that allows our Mid City campus to offer more than 20 vital services, employ more than 800 team members, and to meet some of Baton Rouge's most pressing healthcare needs in behavioral health, diabetes, and cancer care. We are proud of our vision for the future, and our commitment to continuing our long history of caring for the people of Louisiana." -Mark Slyter, BRG President and CEO
News
