Imagine a hospital with a higher level of service, tranquil water gardens and beautiful landscaping, spacious suites with innovative details, and personal touches like wireless Internet—and cappuccino. Now envision those amenities integrated into a modern, state-of-the-art facility that offers a comprehensive scope of services dedicated specifically to the health and well-being of women.
Welcome to a new era in healthcare. Welcome to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital for Women, where care, comfort and style go hand-in-hand.
“As the only hospital in Lake Charles that is 100 percent locally owned and managed, we have the flexibility to listen—and respond—to the community’s wants and needs,” said Larry Graham, Memorial’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “As a result, we have been able to tailor our services to suit today’s women. We took their health concerns into consideration—but we were also able to consider their lifestyles.”
Formerly known as Memorial’s Gauthier Campus, the 38-bed Hospital for Women is located in south Lake Charles at the corner of Gauthier and Nelson roads. It opened nearly five years ago as an extension of Memorial’s main campus on Oak Park Boulevard. Enhanced services and a renewed dedication to providing a comprehensive scope of services to women of all ages warranted a new name.
Fully accredited, Memorial for Women combines an all-inclusive array of inpatient and outpatient services, including obstetrics, gynecology, general surgery, incontinence treatment, breast health, menopause, and vein and vascular treatment.
Additionally, the most advanced integrated diagnostics, such as digital mammography, bone densitometry testing; stereotactic breast biopsy; laboratory testing, radiology, and ultrasound, are available.
Memorial’s Family Birth Center, which handles 46 percent of the births in Lake Charles, offers 24 Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum (LDRP) suites that are specially designed to accommodate women throughout the delivery process. The suites are designed to provide a nurturing, supportive, and home-like environment for mother and baby, yet are equipped to handle their personal and medical needs.
The first of its kind in Louisiana, the Family Birth Center provides a scope of services that are individualized for every mother-to-be. In addition to encouraging the use of birth plans, which take into consideration labor support, methods of pain control, breastfeeding, and who will be present for the birth, the center prepares families for the birth experience with a variety of educational programs.
Pre- and postnatal seminars include prepared childbirth—both a one-day session and six-week series—baby care, breastfeeding, and sibling classes.
Equipped to handle newborns with the most critical medical needs, the 23-bed, state-of-the-art Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is staffed by a team of dedicated Registered Nurses and Neonatal Nurse Practitioners who provide care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as two neonatologists, Dr. Juan Bassano and Dr. Chih Lin.
For high-risk pregnancies, local obstetricians refer patients to maternal fetal medicine specialists (perinatologists) from Baton Rouge who hold office hours six times a month in the Medical Office Building adjacent to Memorial’s Hospital for Women.
The hospital’s 14-bed women’s specialty unit offers a full spectrum of gynecological procedures with state-of-the-art surgical options, such as minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures involving the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, and bladder.
Other procedures and surgeries include dilatation and curettage, hysterectomy, and tubal ligation. Ambulatory surgery for men will continue to be available, including vascular, orthopedic, and gallbladder procedures.
“We changed the name to better reflect what the hospital has become…the center for women’s health in Lake Charles,” said Marilyn McSwain, Chief Nursing Officer and Administrator of Memorial’s Hospital for Women.
