Acadian Management Group CEO Tim Burke said challenging conditions forced Thursday’s 5 p.m. closure of its Bogalusa campus facility on South Columbia Street.

AMG’s last patients were transferred out to its Slidell facility.

“For a long time the hospital in Bogalusa has been struggling financially,” Burke said Friday from the Slidell office. “The dynamics of the medical market, coupled with Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and shrinking long-term acute care admissions criteria starting Jan. 1, were reasons for the decision to close.”

AMG operates eight facilities in Louisiana and approximately 16 nationwide. AMG is a long-term acute care facility for patients who require specific types of treatment outside the traditional hospital setting.

Burke said 55 employees were affected by the Bogalusa facility’s closure. He said those employees would be given opportunities to work at other AMG hospitals that have vacancies.

Bogalusa’s Our Lady of the Angels CEO/President Rene Ragas said the closing of AMG wouldn’t affect his facility in the least.

“While it is a loss to our community, it does not affect the quality of care for these types of patients being served in our community,” Ragas said. “We have relationships with other providers on the Northshore that are poised to be able to care for these patients that need this type of care. It will not affect us whatsoever. We’ll still be able to take care of our patients with the same level of excellence for which we’re known.”