Jefferson Parish hospital suitors are Ochsner, Children's, HCA
East Jefferson General Hospital building mug East Jefferson
General Hospital in 2007. ( | The Times-Picayune archive) It's
hard to compete as individual hospitals. They get suffocated by
the big systems." -- Jack Finn, former head of Metropolitan
Hospital Council.  Ochsner Health System, Louisiana Children's
Medical Center and the Nashville, Tenn.-based hospital giant
HCA, which runs Tulane Medical Center and Lakeside Hospital, are
the three finalists pursuing a long-term lease with Jefferson
Parish's two public hospitals, according to sources who have
been briefed on the negotiations.  Each of the suitors runs at
least two hospitals in the New Orleans area, including some of
the region's most beloved medical institutions. All three also
have also sought to expand in recent years, as frenzied
consolidation is reshaping the health care marketplace ahead of
President Barack Obama's health care law taking full effect.
News of the competitors' ident