New Baptist Memorial Hospital in Mississippi to be Completed This Fall

OXFORD, Miss. — The new Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford will be one of the largest hospitals in North Mississippi once completed. The project began construction in 2014, and is slated for completion this November.

This 613,000-square-foot project has a budget of $300 million, with Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. in Nashville, serving as the architect, and Robins & Morton also in Nashville serving as the general contractor. The project includes a five-story, 534,000-square-foot replacement hospital and a 79,000-square-foot physician office building. The new facility is 63,000 square feet larger than the current facility, with private rooms for all patients.

There will be 217 rooms in the facility, with upgraded medical and surgical services, including cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, the Baptist Cancer Center and a 24-hour emergency room. This expansion is said to increase the hospital’s economic impact for the city of Oxford and for Lafayette County, and will provide new access to quality medical services in north Mississippi.

The hospital had a beam raising ceremony on May 17, 2016, with the final beam covered in signatures of Oxford residents, local government officials, employees of Baptist Memorial and the construction crew, according to a statement. The ceremony was led by Jason Little, the Baptist Memorial Hospital President and CEO of the Baptist Health Care Corporation.

The Baptist Hospital Staff has been meeting since Jan. 2016 to make sure the transition from the old hospital to the new will be seamless as possible with regards to equipment as well as patients. “While the design and construction phases of building a new hospital are critical, the transition phase is just as important,” said Bill Henning, CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital North-Mississippi according to a statement.

As such, the hospital is working with Covalus — formerly Balfour Resource Group — to help the staff make the transition and planning as smooth as possible. Covalus will work with the hospital staff through the transition until Nov. 25 when all patients and equipment are predicted to be relocated and settled.