The summer's alternatives offered by state Republicans and bad vibes from the feds didn't convince Gov. Bobby Jindal and the powers that be to change plans the size of the state's Charity Hospital replacement, but the snafus did apparently point them in the direction of a cheaper hospital. The state's consultants unfurled plans this week for a $1.008 billion hospital on the somewhat cleared Lower Mid-City plot, with construction costs down about $82 million from the originally-planned $1.2 billion megahospital.

The state was short about $400 billion for the first plan. So, to avoid selling bonds on the open market, the new plans pushes costs for one of the hospital's towers and a parking garage onto the LSU Physicians Foundation. The new plan calls for a hospital with three inpatient towers, an emergency room and trauma center, a physician's tower, a diagnostic and a treatment building, along with support structures like parking facilites.

nder the new plan, the state will not have any debt. The new plan also envisions operation costs about $200 million cheaper than the last business plan. Jindal and Mayor Mitch trumpeted the proposal, with Landrieu calling the plan "a unique opportunity to create a new knowledge-based economy."

The new plan calls for the facility to open by 2015. The plan claims to lay out a way to fill the hospital to capacity by 2020. Planners want to reclaim Charity's old mantle as the primary care facility for Medicaid patients and the uninsured. They also plan to expand the inpatient psychiatric capacity of 60 beds (up from 38 beds) and an emergency department double the size of the one at the current LSU Medical Center.

Beyond that, the plan calls for "enhancing and building community-based ambulatory care programs that will contribute to referrals," convincing LSU doctors who were displaced by the storms to come back and "developing destination programs in identified specialties," according to a statement.

Plans for the hospital have been plentiful, but the funding has long been questioned. The state broke ground on the hospital in the spring before final funding was even secured. The new plan does not change a key theme of the many concerns voiced about the hospital: its size. The 424-bed number has already been disupted by financial consultants, Kaufman-Hall.  In a business plan released earlier this year, Kaufman Hall recommended the facility have 300-400 beds, max. Kaufman-Hall worked  to develop this new plan.

Politically, the hospital has been a hot potato. State Republicans, lead by David Vitter, have largely opposed the giant health care initiative, while Jindal, Landrieu and their successors have been behind it. A huge public effort has called for the rehabilitation of the old Charity Hospital, located in the CBD. The hospital's board will meet to debate the new plan Thursday.

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