Baptist Memorial Hospital Begins Construction

OXFORD, Miss. — In 2012, Oxford was named the 15th fastest growing small town in America by Forbes magazine, which has prompted the local Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi to construct a larger facility in the area. According to the United States Census, the population in Oxford has grown by 15.3 percent since 2010. With the increased population in the area and the growth of local businesses and housing, the new hospital became essential.

“With the growth our area has experienced in the last decade, building a newer, updated hospital to serve the community became an easy decision,” said William Henning, administrator and CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital in a statement.

Although the bed count of 247 will remain the same, the new space will be larger and more robust, according to Henning. “We will have the space to add new services, the flexibility for future changes in patient care and the infrastructure for new technology,” he said in a statement.

The former Baptist Memorial Hospital sat on a 13-acre lot, but the new campus will sit on a 150-acre lot, which will accommodate for the expansion and upgrades. The size of the hospital will also greatly differ as it grows to accommodate the new population. Henning has said that the construction of the new hospital will cost around $300 million.

Although the hospital will not have a greater number of beds, the focus of the project is to give the hospital a more contemporary, technologically advanced hospital for the community, according to Henning. “Everyone wants to be in Oxford. As Baptist brings more physicians and adds specialties to the area, it reduces the need for locals to travel outside of Oxford,” Henning said in a statement.

The new Baptist Memorial Hospital should be complete and fully operational by December 2017, according to Jondi Roberson, director of marketing and provider relations in The DM Online. “We are projected to take our first patients as of Dec. 1 of 2017. As far as when we will shut this hospital down, I am not sure when we will be completely out of this hospital. I assume sometime shortly thereafter,” Roberson said.

Decisions as to what will happen to the current hospital have yet to be made, but according to Roberson, the hospital is set to go up for sale. If the hospital is not sold, Baptist Memorial will be responsible for turning the former site into a green space for the community.

“The future looks bright. We are committed to providing the high-quality health care that our community deserves,” Henning said.

The administration and staff are excited about the new hospital and believe that the new, updated hospital will provide them with a great new opportunity to serve Oxford Better, according to The DM Online.