Northshore Healthbeat

It's beginming to look a lot like Christmas, and to help you find the perfect gift for that special child in your life, we sit down with the experts from the St Tammany Parenting Center to talk about what to look for when shopping for toys - including some of their favorite picks of the year. 

On Dec. 2, 1954, St. Tammany Health System's flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital welcomed its first baby into the world. Now, 70 years later, more than 60,000 babies have joined that first one, and St. Tammany Parish Hospital has become the premiere destination for maternity care on the Northshore. But what does that mean, exactly?

How prepared are you and your loved ones to weather the next major hurricane from a health standpoint? Twenty years ago Hurricane Katrina changed the game, and so much more, from a healthcare perspective. Now Amy and Mike get some pro tips from St Tammany Health System Vice President Mike Hill and Braswell's Pharmacy Sondra Ard. 

When the weather gets hot, and the days get long, the Emergency Department at St Tammany Health System gets busy, busy, busy. To mark the season, we welcome St Tammany Health System trauma experts Joe St. Phillip and Bethany Monistere to our (mercifully air-conditioned) podcast studio to discuss what to do when the summer break goes sideways.  

During the heat of the summer Mike Scott sits down with Dr Merrill Laurent, a long time local primary care physician. The two discuss the dangers of high temperatures - and the importance of staying cool when it gets hot outside - as well as series of other frequently asked questions.  

The Family Medicine Formula: St Tammany Health System/Ochsner Family Medicine Residency Program. 

In this episode Dr Lisa Casey and first year resident, Dr. Meghan Castillo, share the successes and goals of the St Tammany Health System/Ochsner Family Medicine residency program at the St Tammany Physicians Network North Covington Clinic. 

It's the conversation that no one wants to have but that everybody should. It is Advance Care Planning, or putting your healthcare decisions in writing now, while you're still able to communicate them. In this show, St Tammany Health System Palliative Medicine Supervisor Emily Pupo helps understand how tackling this quick and easy chore now can spare you and your loved ones enormous heartache in the future.  

In just four years the nonprofit St Tammany Health Foundation has led the way in its efforts to transform healthcare for patients on the Northshore with Autism. We sat down with foundation Executive Director Nicole Suhre and Board of Trustees member Sunny McDaniel to talk about their work in the autism arena, and why it is so profound for patients with autism and those who love them. 

Fans of the New Orleans Saints likely remember Rich Mauti from his playing days, but since hanging up his cleats, he has worked tirelessly to support local cancer causes - including a recent gift to St. Tammany Health System that is being called transformational when it comes to lung cancer. He joins us to talk about why the cause is so personal to him and what he hopes his advocacy work accomplishes.  

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, so we sit down with two experts on the matter- gastroenterologist Dr. Brandon Brousse and family medicine specialist Dr. Maria Roberts - about ways to take control of your gut health, as well as signs that it might be time to have a deeper conversation with your primary care physician. 

Just three months after the founding of St Tammany Parish Hospital in 1954, the all-volunteer St Tammany Hospital Guild was created to help it in its healing mission. Now, 70 years later, we sit down with some of its current members to talk about the organization and why they choose to donate their time to it. 

Well, we did it. Together we have put a bow on 2024, but there's no time to rest. As busy as the past 12 months have been, the new year is shaping up to be just as busy at St. Tammany Health System as President and CEO Joan Coffman tells us in our first episode of 2025.