Wayne Landry, Chairman of the Hospital Service District Board, took several dozen parish officials and Chamber of Commerce members on a tour of St. Bernard Hospital, set to open in August. He explained that the hospital beds are so sophisticated that they measure body weight, then he joked that may be a feature administrators can turn off at the request of the patient. Behind Landry, from left is Ewell “Corky” Potts III; Stephen Reuther, Chamber CEO; Sean Warner, District 4 School Board member and Chamber board member; Jerry Calcagno, Chamber Vice Chairman; and Doris Voitier, Superintendent of Schools.

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“If you have to have care, this is the facility to do that,” said Wayne Landry, Chairman of the St. Bernard Hospital Service District, and tour guide for the several dozen parish officials and St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce members visiting the facility Wednesday.

The $71 million hospital and medical office building are set to open soon– the hospital in August, and the medical office about mid-September.

“Tim (Burke) is putting together a first class staff,” said Landry.

Throughout the facility are negative pressure rooms, which isolate aireborn infections, ceiling mounted patient lifts, and electronic medical records terminals.

Records will be password protected and digitally-stored so that doctors with the password can access patient files, be it in their office in another parish, or a specialist in another state.