From the Heart: Ready or not

Tuesday, December 28, 2021 | Vol. 2, No. 12

A new year, a new COVID-19 variant.

With the calendar changing to 2022, the omicron variant has arrived in our community, and, given its high transmissibility, hospitals – including St. Tammany Health System’s Covington hospital – are bracing for yet another surge in COVID cases.

While there’s still a lot to learn about omicron, experts say we already have a number of tools to fight it. Chief among them: vaccines and boosters, which appear to lessen the severity of any breakthrough cases – meaning they’re keeping many people out of the hospital, which is job No. 1 for any vaccine.

But there are additional ways for you to protect your family for those New Year’s celebrations and Tiger tailgates on Jan. 4. Visit StTammany.health for tips to keep safe as part of your party planning.

Thank you for being part of our St. Tammany family, and we wish you a safe, happy and healthy New Year.

Community checkup with Joan Coffman

In her monthly video message to the community, St. Tammany Health System President and CEO Joan Coffman expresses gratitude to neighbors and STHS colleagues, and enthusiastically looks toward the future with hope.

Watch video

Community checkup with Joan Coffman for December 2021

A fond farewell

It was 1984, and two young physicians – Drs. Libeau Berthelot and Mark James – began working together, serving the needs of rural Northshore residents as partners in Dr. Gerald Foret’s family medical practice in Franklinton.

This month, six years after the clinic’s move to Folsom, the two old friends and business partners are ending their careers the same way they practiced for those 37 years: together.

So what’s next for them – and for our St. Tammany Physicians Network clinic in Folsom? Glad you asked …

Heaux, heaux, heaux!

Santa’s little helpers were hard at work at STHS recently, loading up sleigh-loads of gifts donated by health system colleagues to 40 local families through the Covington Office of Children and Families, an annual tradition that never fails to generate smiles.

The year in review

As we nudge closer to the new year, STHS President and CEO Joan Coffman recently visited The Lake 98.7 FM to look back at 2021 and ahead to 2022. Listen to what she had to say, or read a transcript, at the link below.

Leading the way

You might remember reading about TAVR – a groundbreaking, minimally invasive heart procedure – in our most recent issue of Heart to Heart magazine. Now, word comes that our TAVR team has become the second in the New Orleans area to receive certification from the American College of Cardiology.

Money talks

With COVID-19 affecting employers locally, regionally and nationally, the St. Tammany Health System Board of Commissioners recently approved a $6 million workforce strategy, called Invested in You, aimed at retaining the exceptional workforce for which the health system is known.

St. Tammany Health System