DeSoto Hospital Moving Forward

Facility would have to participate fully in state trauma system

Mississippi state Board of Health members have paved the way for a new hospital in burgeoning DeSoto County – as long as that hospital treats the poor and fully participates in the state’s trauma system.

It’s the first time a proposed hospital has been required to participate in the trauma care network.

The board amended its 2010 State Health Plan to permit additional hospitals in counties of more than 140,000 people and a projected population growth of 10 percent over the next decade. In addition to the trauma system requirements, any new hospital must provide care to patients on Medicaid and those from neighboring Tunica County.

“That’s our mission,” said Ruth Ann Hale, director of media and communications for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, which hopes to open a 100-bed hospital in Olive Branch.

Methodist already operates five hospitals in all parts of Memphis, she said. “Our mission is to take care of everyone, and this is just an extension of that.”

It’s the latest move by Mississippi aimed at increasing participation in the state’s trauma system, which had faced possible collapse two years ago.

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Source: Clarion Ledger