HJNO May/Jun 2025

40 MAY / JUN 2025  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   Healthcare Briefs legal name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address, recent photograph, national provider identifier (NPI). • Education: high school equivalency test (HISET), GED, high school, college, grad- uate school. • Qualifications: experience and training pathways, duration of practice. The Louisiana Doula Registry Board will review applications, granting approval or issuing rejec- tions for inclusion on the Louisiana Doula Regis- try quarterly beginning in March 2025. For more information, visit ldh.la.gov/page/ DoulaRegistry or email DoulaRegistryBoard@ la.gov. STHS Sleep Disorders Center Reaccredited Through 2029 by AASM St. Tammany Sleep Disorders Center in Cov- ington recently earned program reaccreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The sleep center, which is a part of St. Tammany Health System, has been accredited by AASM since 2005. This latest reaccreditation remains valid through 2029. AASM-accredited sleep centers provide diag- nostic and therapeutic care for people who have problems related to sleep and alertness. Sleep disorders addressed at the center include obstructive sleep apnea, chronic insomnia, rest- less legs syndrome and narcolepsy. The AASM began accrediting sleep disorders centers in 1977. Today, more than 2,300 AASM- accredited sleep centers operate across the country. St. Tammany Sleep Disorders Center provides home, on-site, and overnight testing, as well as follow-up with comprehensive treatment, includ- ing with a board-certified sleep physician. It is located at 80 Gardenia Drive, Suite A, just south of St. Tammany Health System’s St. Tam- many Parish Hospital. DCHC Accepting Applications for 2025 Family Nurse Practitioner Residency Program DePaul Community Health Centers (DCHC) is accepting applications for its Family Nurse Practitioner Residency Training Program, which College of Medicine where she stayed as a clini- cal assistant professor. As a faculty member, Vally worked to strengthen the urgent care clinic and student doctor program while pursuing her own interests in neuro-ophthalmology. Her passion for public service brought her to Louisiana where she worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and nursing homes throughout many rural and hard- to-reach parishes. Application NowOpen for Louisiana Doula Registry The Louisiana Department of Health is accept- ing applications to the Louisiana Doula Registry. Once registered, doulas can be reimbursed by insurance providers, including Louisiana Medic- aid, for up to $1,500 per pregnancy. LDH’s Bureau of Family Health, which falls within the Office of Public Health, developed the reg- istry in collaboration with the Louisiana Doula Registry Board. The Louisiana Doula Registry will serve as a database of individuals with regis- tered doula status in Louisiana. This registry will include a list of approved doulas eligible for insur- ance reimbursement and verification for insur- ance companies, as outlined in Louisiana Revised Statute 22:1059.2. A doula is an individual who has been trained to provide physical, emotional, and educational support to pregnant and birthing women and their families before, during, and after childbirth. For doulas registered with the Louisiana Doula Registry, this support includes non-medical sup- port and education but not medical or midwifery care. The benefits of doula care on pregnancy out- comes have been documented in numerous stud- ies and include: • Fewer cesarean sections. • More spontaneous vaginal births. • Shortened duration of birth. • More maternal satisfaction postpartum. • Higher breastfeeding rates. • Lower rates of preterm labor and low birth weight. Doulas seeking inclusion in the registry must complete the application at ldh.la.gov/page/ DoulaRegistry. The application will collect the following information: • Identifying information/demographics: begins the first week in September 2025 and runs through the end of August 2026. Five residency slots are available for this cohort. The applica- tion process will close once all positions are filled. The program is specifically intended for new family nurse practitioners who are committed to developing careers as primary care providers in the setting of community health centers and other safety net settings. The program structure includes precepted primary care sessions, spe- cialty rotations, mentored independent clinics, didactic sessions, quality improvement, and lead- ership development. The residency is a full-time, 12-month salaried position with DCHC's benefits of employment. Residents are provided with intensive training to both the clinical complexity of family practice in the safety net setting, and training to a high- performance, patient-centered medical home model of primary care. The primary goals of this program include: • Increasing access to quality primary care for underserved, rural, and special populations. • Providing new family nurse practitioners with a depth, breadth, volume, and inten- sity of clinical training necessary to serve as primary care providers in the complex setting of the country’s federally qualified health centers. • Improving the skills, confidence, productiv- ity, and job satisfaction of new nurse prac- titioners, specifically in a safety net setting. • Increasing the number of family nurse prac- titioners ready to serve in leadership roles in community health centers. To learn more about the program and to apply, visit depaulcommunityhealthcenters.org or email depaulnpresidency@dcsno.org . STHS to Open Primary Care Clinic in Bush/WaldheimArea St. Tammany Health System has announced the addition of a 5,034-square-foot primary care clinic located at 79636 Louisiana 21 near the entrance to Money Hill subdivision in the Bush/Waldheim area of St. Tammany Parish. Scheduled to open in spring 2025, it will oper- ate from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, with same-day appointments available. An exact opening date will be announced once it is available. n