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Ochsner Clinic Foundation and LSU Health Care Services Division today announced plans to re-establish trauma care in the New Orleans area. The LSU/Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans, working in with the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, is leasing space at Ochsner's Elmwood Hospital, a private, not-for-profit facility in Jefferson Parish. This location will house the Katrina-ruined trauma facility at LSU's Charity Hospital until Dec. 31.Louisiana State University and Tulane will staff the Trauma Center and maintain 40 critical care beds at the Clearview Parkway facility. Charity's Trauma Center was world renowned for its care, said LSU HCSD CEO Donald Smithburg. Residents rebuilding the Crescent City can expect the same level of trauma service at this temporary location.Smithburg said the center could accept patients as early as March.Dr. Cathi Fontenot, MCLNO medical director, said the location will be for trauma cases only and will not have walk-in emergency room or clinic. It will be referred to as the LSU/Medical Center of Louisiana New Orleans, Level-1 Trauma Center. The only other Level- 1 Trauma Center in Louisiana is in Shreveport, which LSU also operates.Dr. Patrick Quinlan, Ochsner CEO, contacted LSU in December 2005 about re-establishing the Trauma Center.Ochsner continues its leadership to rebuild our city. Ochsner itself is a large teaching hospital, Quinlan said. We recognize the importance of the Trauma Center in maintaining the health of our community as well as the education of physicians and other health professionals.Specialized physicians and nurses will be available around the clock to treat life-threatening injuries (ranging from motor vehicle accidents to strokes).According to Ochsner's Chairman of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Joseph Guarisco, who has been treating a large number of trauma cases in the city, currently, the majority of trauma in New Orleans is centered on motor vehicle accidents and cleanup and rebuilding injuries involving relief workers, construction crews and residents.Post-Katrina, Ochsner's daily patient census includes over 425 occupied beds, 170 daily emergency room visits and 2,500 clinic visits from the greater New Orleans community. Ochsner was one of just three hospitals in the New Orleans area to remain open throughout Hurricane Katrina.The Medical Center of Louisiana currently offers emergency medical services in the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, and an adult primary care clinic in the Hutchinson Building on Tulane Avenue across the street from the Charity Hospital Campus. MCLNO doctors and nurses are treating 300 patients a day; that's almost half of the emergency department visits seen at Charity before the storm.