St. James Parish Hospital recently welcomed senior leadership from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for an on-site visit recognizing the hospital’s success in strengthening rural healthcare access and improving care for underserved communities through the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) Program.
HRSA Administrator, Tom Engels, along with Chief of Staff Margaret Bush, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ann Sheehy, and Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, Acting Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General, toured the hospital on January 22, 2026. During the visit, HRSA leaders met with hospital executives and frontline staff to learn more about innovative approaches to care delivery, expanded services, and community-focused solutions underway in St. James Parish.
“We were honored to host HRSA leadership and share how St. James Parish Hospital is expanding rural healthcare access for our community and the River Region,” said Mary Ellen Pratt, CEO of St. James Parish Hospital. St. James Parish Hospital is a public, nonprofit, 25-bed Critical Access Hospital serving St. James Parish and surrounding communities. Through its participation in HRSA’s three-year DRCHSD Program, the hospital has made significant progress in improving operations, expanding care access, and building long-term sustainability for medically underserved residents in the region.
Key accomplishments supported through the DELTA program include:
• Enhanced inpatient, emergency, and swing bed operations through standardized workflows, leadership alignment, and implementing performance dashboards.
• Improved scheduling, intake, and care coordination processes through new digital access tools.
• Expanded telehealth capabilities to support specialist access and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Established a new Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program, bringing critical services closer to home
• Converted an existing primary care clinic into a Rural Health Clinic (RHC) model, improving sustainability and rural access.
Beyond hospital operations, St. James Parish Hospital has also grown its community presence by forming a Community Coalition to identify local health priorities, establishing the Wellness Foundation to support future programs through fundraising, and advancing plans for a mobile outreach initiative to deliver preventive and primary care services directly into the community.
Additionally, following the closure of a local retail pharmacy, St. James Parish Hospital partnered with ProxsysRx to launch Parish Pharmacy, a hospital-aligned retail pharmacy located within the facility, ensuring residents continue to have reliable and convenient access to essential medications.
“These efforts reflect what is possible when rural hospitals receive the support and technical assistance needed to innovate and respond to community needs,” Pratt stated. “Programs like DRCHSD play a critical role in helping rural hospitals like ours continue delivering high-quality care close to home.”
