NMMC Has $55 Million Expansion Project Underway

TUPELO— North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) has its single-largest construction project underway.

The $55 million expansion plan calls for a new five-story west bed tower and also renovations to the hospital’s main building. When the project is completed, a walkway will connect the new west bed tower to the existing one.

For the duration of the construction phase, which began Jan. 3 and is scheduled to last 42 months, NMMC relocated the entrance to the admission and discharge office from the hospital’s second floor to the south lobby on Feb. 7. The southwest parking area located adjacent to the admission and discharge office was closed permanently Feb. 6. In late February, a 180-foot-tall crane with an arm extending 230 feet was installed adjacent to Gloster Street.

As part of the west bed tower project, patient rooms located on the west side of the hospital will be enlarged from approximately 165 square feet to approximately 265 square feet, including no-wax, nonslip flooring. Each room will have three distinct zones for the patient, family and hospital staff.

The patient area will include a comfortable bed, shower, built-in bedside table and wall closet, and also two recliners. The staff will have work space in each room with a desk and chair and sink for hand-washing, and patients will have bedside control from a single unit for everything in the room—adjusting room temperature, lighting, television, nurse call system, and window blinds. Even the windows have wider views, expanding from 90 degrees to 135 degrees. Each bedroom will have a special cabinet to house all linens, supplies and medications, reducing the number of times staff enters the room.

Each of the five floors is designed to house 44 patient rooms. Sixteen rooms will be located in the existing area, and 28 new rooms will be constructed. A wide corridor will connect the two sections.

Hospital officials said the project was initiated in response to public feedback about shortcomings in patient rooms on the east and west nursing units, many of which were constructed nearly 45 years ago.

NMMC’s single-largest construction project should be completed by mid-2014. Cost for adding the East Tower in the 1990s was $44 million, a project that included an expansion of emergency and outpatient services on the ground floor and the addition of four floors to house physician offices and outpatient services. The second largest was Project 90 in the early 1990s, which included the addition of an education center with meeting rooms and an auditorium, a food court and dining area, and offices for support services.

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