Extended Care of Southwest Louisiana

Extended Care of Southwest Louisiana, Lake Charles Memorial Health System began providing quality health care to the Lake Charles area in 1952, when rapid growth following the end of World War II resulted in the need for additional hospital facilities in Calcasieu Parish. At the same time, the Lake Charles Air Force Base, located east of the city (now known as Chennault International Air Park), was deactivated, leaving the base hospital empty. Members of the Calcasieu Parish Medical Society petitioned the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury for help obtaining the use of the base hospital, a 75-bed facility that had served military personnel during the war. The request was granted, and the Medical Society selected some of its members to administer the facility. However, while the parish had use of the facility, it did not get ownership.

So, while the base hospital remained in operation under this plan, area doctors and private citizens began work on a plan to establish a new, permanent hospital in Lake Charles. The new non-profit, 100-bed Lake Charles Memorial Hospital was constructed in what was then, the new Oak Park subdivision. While the new hospital officially opened its doors on October 23, 1952, it was “unofficially” opened on October 17 for a special delivery. Mrs. Joe T. Miller, whose husband was supervisor of construction for the facility, gave birth to a daughter, the first baby born at the new hospital. Memorial grew rapidly in the decades that followed.