Rapides Regional Medical Center welcomes new team member

ALEXANDRIA, La., April 6, 2022 - Rapides Regional Medical Center is happy to announce its newest team member – Scrappy, our hospital mascot!

“As we re-engage with our community and begin participating in area events and providing activities for our employees, we wanted to add a little extra excitement to the mix,” said Charla Ducote, Vice President of Public Relations, Marketing and Business Development at Rapides Regional Medical Center. “Our marketing team, with the help of our employees, created a mascot for our patients and you’ll see him appear in our community very soon.”

Scrappy, the mascot, is a “1-year-old Catahoula Cur from Indian Creek who’s always been a little adventurous.” When Scrappy stumbles across a hurt little boy in the woods, and climbs into the helicopter with him, he finds himself in the middle of the Emergency Room and quickly makes friends with the RRMC employees.

Scrappy was so popular with patients, families and employees, that he was given his own uniform and made a permanent part of the team!

“Mascots are a great way to form a connection with the community,” Ducote said. “But Scrappy, in his larger than life mascot form and in his stuffed animal and sticker form, also helps us form relationships with our youngest, and sometimes, our most anxious patients.

“Our hope is that Scrappy can bring comfort to children when they visit the emergency room or other areas of the hospital and will help them realize the hospital isn’t a scary place, but a helping place.”

Rapides Regional Medical Center is a Level II Trauma Center and is home to the area’s only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. For that reason, RRMC employees often provide care to children and their families.

“As a nurse, and also as a mother and grandmother, I’ve seen both sides of the hospital experience,” said Julie Fontenot, RNC-OB, CPPS, Rapides Women’s and Children’s Hospital Administrative Director. “You want to take care of all the medical needs, but you also want to take care of the emotional needs of the child as well. The hospital can be a scary place because, thankfully, it’s a place children don’t typically visit very often. But when they do, it’s our job to make them feel better, inside and out.

“Scrappy gives us a way to do that. A stuffed animal, a few stickers, a coloring page, and a story about a brave puppy taking care of a brave little boy, that can all go a long way when you’re providing care and need a comforting distraction.”

Not only does Scrappy give patients and their families a much needed diversion, he also offers a boost to employees who might need an extra reason to smile after a long shift or difficult case.

“Working in healthcare isn’t easy,” Ducote said. “Not only is the work physically demanding, in the last few years especially, it can be emotionally demanding, too. Scrappy can be a reminder of the reason we chose to work in healthcare. We chose healthcare because we want to help. We want to be able to provide comfort. And we want to see our patients smile.”

For more information about Scrappy, or to download a Scrappy coloring page, visit https://rapidesregional.com/about/meet-our-mascot-scrappy.dot. You can also request a visit from Scrappy for your next school or community event.

About Rapides Regional Medical Center

Rapides Regional Medical Center is a 380-bed acute care hospital located in Alexandria, La., providing healthcare on a higher level for families in approximately 16 central Louisiana parishes. Our mission is to provide high quality, efficient and compassionate health care services for our patients and community through the efforts of our employees, physicians and volunteers.

Rapides Regional Medical Center has provided state-of-the-art, comprehensive medical services to our community for more than 118 years. Our campus is home to Rapides Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Rapides Cancer Center, Rapides Heart Center, Rapides Outpatient Center, Rapides Regional Trauma Center, 51-bed emergency department, NICU, PICU and ICU. Read about these services and more at rapidesregional.com.