Memorial Leads McNeese Sports Medicine Program

Lake Charles Memorial Health System is leading a new partnership with McNeese State University and area doctors to provide medical care to the university’s student athletes.

The Memorial-McNeese Sports Medicine Program will be primary care based with family medicine specialists and sports medicine doctors providing initial care and assessments, while working with orthopedic consultants and other subspecialists.

Dr. Bryan Barootes, a sport and family medicine physician, with the Memorial/LSUHSC Family Medicine Clinic and Residency Program will be the lead physician for the program.

“This new program is a collaboration among doctors and medical providers throughout Southwest Louisiana. We have attempted to make our program inclusive, rather than exclusive by incorporating doctors and specialists that have expressed a willingness to participate. It truly is a community based program with Memorial's support,” Dr. Barootes says. “Using a primary care based model is one that is used in many communities and has proved to very efficient.”

The team of doctors will provide care in the infirmary, training rooms, clinic and on the field. Whatever the medical need is, the student athlete will then be referred to the proper specialist to treat any injury or illness.

“Treating a student athlete is more than broken bones or muscle strains,” Dr. Barootes says. “It is about treating the whole athlete and this partnership of doctors throughout the community working together will accomplish that.”

Dr. Kari Brody, Director of Sport Medicine at McNeese heads the team of athletic trainers for the program and coordinates the daily care of the student athletes and assures their ability to perform safely and to their full potential.