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While the rest of the state is renovating and constructing healthcare facilities to upgrade services, the Mississippi Gulf Coast is rebuilding out of necessity since Hurricane Katrina wiped out a great deal of the coastal healthcare system.

According to the Mississippi Hospital Association, more than 30 percent of Mississippi's hospitals suffered significant damage during Katrina. Two percent of the clinics that were destroyed are not going to be rebuilt. There are fewer doctors and staff remaining on the Gulf Coast because of the decrease in hospital beds, and more than 60 percent of the nurses said they had been contacted by recruiters offering competitive pay for out-of-state jobs.

Still, the Mississippi Gulf Coast is rebuilding slowly but steadily, as shown by the Certificate of Need (CON) applications trickling into the Mississippi Department of Health (MDH). In addition, federal funds are assisting in recovering and rebuilding efforts.

In Gov. Haley Barbour's progress report, "One Year After Katrina: Progress Report on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal," he reported the Department of Health received $13.4 million to restore special needs shelters and a pharmaceutical warehouse, replace district signs along highways on the coast and replace emergency response equipment.

The Department of Rehabilitation Services was awarded $9.2 million that will be used to provide interpreters for the hearing-impaired, replace damaged equipment including wheelchairs, and restore damaged homes and vehicles with modifications to support the disabled.

The Department of Mental Health received $9.9 million to restore services to adult and children day treatment facilities, provide transportation, and restore work activity centers and other facilities in George, Hancock and Harrison counties.

MDH reports that among many CON applications submitted or revised was the Gulf South Surgery Center's request to construct a new recovery area, business office and two new operating rooms and renovation of a third OR. The 24,690 square feet project included 9,760 square feet of new construction and 14,930 square feet of existing area renovation. Even though the project had been approved pre-Katrina, the storm did alter how it would be implemented.

"We had some damage, but we were back in operation within six weeks after the storm," said Leah Ethridge, management consultant for Gulf South Surgery Center and president of Surgical Management Associates, LLC. "This plan has been in the works a few years. Part of the expansion and renovation was granted an LNR (letter of non-reviewability) prior to Katrina. After the storm, it was brought to our attention that the cost of this part of the project now exceeded the $2 million threshold, mainly due to an increase in labor costs. The board of our center decided then to apply for a CON for the entire project instead of renovating and building in phases. Gulf South has physician shareholders and because it's a long-term project, we'll meet and make a final decision in January how we're going to plan some of the construction so we don't have to ever stop patient care. We have a lot of patients depending on us. We're preparing for population growth and meeting the needs of the community. The ambulatory surgery industry is growing by leaps and bounds and physician shareholders anticipate growth in the future."

Select Specialty Hospitals Gulf Coast had been given MHD authorization to put 42 beds in Biloxi and 38 in Gulfport. However, since Katrina left nothing but a slab at the Biloxi facility, all 80 beds will now be housed in Gulfport at the former Garden Park Hospital on Broad Avenue.

Select Specialty Hospital Gulf Coast CEO Ray Owens said for all intended purposes, renovations are complete.

"We've opened an 80-bed, free standing hospital in Gulfport," Owens said. "We're mainly a long-term, acute care facility. Our patients stay with us typically three or four weeks. Out of those 80 beds, eight of them are in our high observation unit. We can't technically call it an ICU, but it functions similarly to an ICU in terms of the arrangement, design and staffing. Right now, we're already operating 61 of the 80 beds."


February 2007

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