After about four years of prolonged planning and paperwork, construction is finally underway for the new Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford.
Ashley Compton, public relations coordinator of Baptist Memorial Hospital, said the new building will serve as a replacement hospital and will remain as a regional referral center.
“The current hospital is land locked, and in an effort to provide health care to a growing community such as Oxford and Lafayette county, Baptist needed to have the flexibility to grow as the health care industry changes,” Compton said.
Architects officially began moving the foundation dirt for the building at the end of August, according to Jondi Roberson, director of marketing and provider relations at Baptist Memorial Hospital.
“They should finish (moving dirt) by sometime next spring,” Roberson said.
According to Roberson, the dirt has to settle for about 18 months before they actually can begin construction on the new hospital.
However while the dirt settles, the hospital’s architects will have their hands full with another vital task while completing the construction of the building.
“As of right now, Baptist Memorial Hospital is being built between Old Taylor Road and South Lamar, but there is no road that will lead to the actual site,” said Robyn Tannehill, alderman for Ward 2.
Both Tannehill and Roberson believed that building new roads to the hospital would be beneficial not only for people going to and from the hospital, but also for everyday commuters in the area as well.
Because Old Taylor Road and South Lamar are already highly frequented roads, new pathways would help divert some of the traffic the hospital might create.
Construction on the hospital’s building will begin once the dirt is finally settled sometime next fall, according to Roberson.
“As of now, the hospital is set to be officially completed in the winter of 2017 or 2018,” Compton said.
This projected date is a bit later than expected.
“There was the normal legal process that had to be addressed with a project of this magnitude which did delay the original start date, but we are pleased with the progression of the project as of this date,” Compton said.
For more questions on the construction of Baptist Memorial, contact the hospital via phone at 662-232-8100 or by email at info.northmiss@bmhcc.org.
