East Mississippi State Hospital patients get new rooms – Meridian Star

Patients at the East Mississippi State Hospital will soon move out of their 132-year-old rooms into a new 60-bed facility to accommodate modern amenities such as high-speed data, heating and cooling as well as strengthen the structural integrity.

The former building, built in 1885, didn't comply with current building codes and it had to be updated to maintain the hospitals Joint Commission accerditation as a health care organization and provider.

"Most people do not know this, but our state hospital was in the process of losing accreditation and funding because of its age, deterioration and overall general condition," Charles Young Jr., the Mississippi House representative for District 82, said. "Quite a few buildings were built in the early 1800s... the buildings were not able to be adequately updated."

Hospital staff, administrators and state legislators viewed the $14 million newfacility after a brief, soggy ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon, touring the future rooms, offices and nursing stations.

"This is the beginning of the beginning for (EMSH). (EMSH) has served the community well for decades and decades," Young said. "It's an ultra-modern facility and an opportunity to show Mississippi just how good the director and staff are here."

EMSH director Charles Carlisle said that with 100 patients, the 60 rooms won't be enough space for everyone. In late summer Carlisle said 60 patients would be moved into the new building and the remaining would be moved into the former adolescent complex.

Carlisle said he believed construction would start on the second 60-bed receiving unit with an additional medical wing and admissions hall in early fall. The second building will cost $17 million with these additions. Even with these additions, Carlisle said he anticipated the second building would take less time to build than the first building, which took over two years.

Still, Carlisle said he appreciated the state legislature's commitment to helping the hospital keep its accreditation by continuing to fund the bonds for the buildings.

"The bond money is all ready to go," Carlisle said. "We're one of the few agencies in East Mississippi that continued to get bond money."

Though the legislature continued funding the bonds that built the new structures, some services and positions were lost after this year's budget cuts. EMSH had to close its adolescent complex, built in 2002, and convert it for adult acute psychiatric care, losing 74 positions, after budget cuts this year.

"They believed we needed this," Carlisle said.

Carlisle stressed that the new building would be a replacement building for the old four-story facility, so no other positions would be lost.

"The old building needed to come down," Carlisle said. "But we won't demolish it until the other building is finished."

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East Mississippi State Hospital patients get new rooms - Meridian Star