Touro still wants to be the place where babies come from, but it is increasingly serving them as they age, noted Dr. Christopher Lege, who was officially named the hospital’s new CEO April 30 after serving as interim CEO and chief medical officer.
“The fastest growing population in New Orleans is actually the senior population, those 65 and over,” said Lege. “As such, we’ve been evolving over the past several years, creating programs specifically to meet the needs of that population. We feel like that is what our identity is going to be as part of LCMC.”
Touro Infirmary merged with Children’s Hospital New Orleans in 2009 to form LCMC Health, a nonprofit system that currently manages eight hospitals in Louisiana.
Before assuming the role of Touro’s chief medical officer, Lege served as primary care medical director and chief medical officer for Crescent City Physicians. He earned his medical degree at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. His residency was at Tulane Medical Center.
Lege’s top priority in 2024 is improving access to care at Touro’s 28 community clinics and promoting preventive care. That means educating people on where and how to access care beyond the emergency room.
“Staffing is certainly a challenge,” he says. The pandemic not only worsened a national staffing shortage, but it also affected community outreach and education. Now that we’re on the other side of it, we can get back to connecting at events and outreach that shows Touro’s important place in the community,” he said. “We’ve been here 170 years.”