A Texas healthcare company plans to open a 66-bed hospital facility at a medical complex in Lacombe next year, offering inpatient and outpatient behavioral healthcare for northshore residents.
The behavioral hospital run by Oceans Healthcare will care for adult patients with acute psychiatric issues like major depression or psychosis, according to Darryl Doise, the company’s chief development officer.
The complex, owned by Ochsner, is located off La. 434 in Lacombe near Interstate 12, and is the former home of the Lacombe Heart Hospital. The new hospital facility will require renovations of part of the complex, which will take between a year and 14 months, Doise said.
In addition to the 66 beds for in-patient services, Doise said the hospital will likely have around five group rooms for intensive outpatient care, which he said would mean they could treat as many as 50 people for outpatient services at one time.
Oceans Healthcare has 13 other hospitals around the state.
“Something we think a lot about here is bringing care to patients so they’re closer to home,” Doise said.
The new hospital will fill a vacancy at the Ochsner Northshore Medical Complex that was created after a skilled nursing facility and a long-term acute care facility closed about a year ago, according to Alisha Lacour, CEO of Ochsner for the Northshore and Mississippi Gulf Coast region.
In addition to the new behavioral hospital, the Ochsner complex will continue to have an inpatient rehab unit, Lacour said. The healthcare company also has offices and conference space at the complex.
Nick Richard, the director of the regional chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said that having a new behavioral hospital in St. Tammany is valuable to both patients and their families, who sometimes have to travel hours to other cities to visit loved ones in psychiatric hospitals.
In 2025, 6,385 physician emergency certificates were issued in St. Tammany, Richard noted. A certificate is issued to someone when they are considered a danger to themselves or others and need to be sent to a treatment facility like the one planned for Lacombe, he said.
“Being able to have that dead square in the middle of our parish, I think it’s awesome. I’m always excited about having access to more services,” Richard said.
Other behavioral hospitals on the northshore include Northlake Behavioral Health Hospital in Mandeville, Lakeview Behavioral Health in Covington, Beacon Behavioral Health in Lacombe and Covington Behavioral Health.
Oceans also has a 36-bed hospital in Hammond, which is for adult and juvenile patients, Doise said.
Oceans Healthcare said it did not have an estimated cost for the renovations.