Allen Parish to begin construction on a new hospital this summer

(Editor’s note: This story was originally published on February 9, 2021 at 7:30 PM CST - Updated March 2 at 12:37 PM www.kplctv.com)

LAKE CHARLES, La. (Great Health Divide) - Allen Parish Community Healthcare hospital is about to get an upgrade. A three-phase plan in the works will rebuild and essentially replace their existing hospital.

“Building a new hospital or a replacement hospital will secure healthcare in the community for the future,” said hospital CEO Jaqueline Reviel.

Reviel said they’ve been planning this rebuild for the past few years and that this project is well over due.

“We’re really in need of a new hospital. It’s out dated, it’s not up to code...we really need a replacement hospital at this point in time.”

Construction on this 5-year project is expected to being this summer with phase one - being a 13 million dollar project.

“It will add surgical services, a new ER, new lobby, imaging, lab and pharmacy will all be in that phase one project.”

The CEO said she’s excited about bringing back surgical services - something this area hasn’t had for about 10 years.

“Allen Parish serves a community in a 45 mile area where there’s no other hospitals and it’s about 25-24 thousand people in that area.”

She hopes to ensure residents living in rural areas have access to quality healthcare. The entire project is estimated to cost anywhere between 28 and 35 million dollars. Reviel says that funding has been a challenge because of covid, but now they are able to move forward.

“So we went to the USDA [United States Department of Agriculture] and last...maybe two Tuesday’s ago, we got our eligibility letter for phase one.”

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