River Oaks Opens New Hospital in Madison County

Despite the wicked weather that surged through the magnolia state in April, Mississippi’s newest hospital opened months ahead of schedule.

The new $42 million Madison River Oaks Medical Center (MRO), which replaces the antiquated Madison County Medical Center, opened to great fanfare amid magnificent springtime blooms in the middle of May.

“We had a lot of severe weather in the early spring,” said Renee Cotton, spokesperson for MRO, located off Interstate 55 at Nissan Parkway in Madison County. “Fortunately, none of it caused a direct hit to our site. Rains that accompanied the storms slowed us down a little bit in the last few weeks.”

Even though the MRO was originally slated to open this fall, the construction team erected the remaining steel beam last October. At the topping off ceremony, a standing-room-only crowd of well wishers gathered despite a driving rain, when MRO CEO Glen Silverman announced that completion of the project could occur this summer, with an optimistic window for late spring.  

On the evening of Friday, May 13, MRO held an invitation-only preview event for elected officials and local healthcare leaders at the new 67-bed hospital as a precursor to the Preview Picnic and Block Party the following day. Characters from the Nickelodeon Backyardigans and offerings of snow cones and popcorn delighted children at the 10 a.m. kickoff for the Saturday event on the 25-acre campus. Tours for the 113,000-square-foot hospital slowed around 11 a.m., when the staff hosted a picnic lunch, followed at 1 p.m. by live music from a Beatles cover band in the front parking lot. Live radio remotes and giveaways for a cruise and family vacation for four to Nickelodeon Studios also helped snare a healthy turnout.

“We wanted to have a fun event for the public before we officially opened and let the community see their new hospital,” said Cotton.  

Patients were moved into MRO on May 22, with 175 employees on board. Another 60 positions—including several for moderately experienced nurses—will likely be filled in the summer and early fall, said Cotton. Terri Meadows, RN, most recently the director of product line services for women’s, oncology and orthopedics at Baptist Health System in Jackson, joined MRO as chief nursing officer in April.

Last September, Health Management Associates (Nasdaq: HMA) transferred Silverman from Central Mississippi Medical Center (CMMC) in Jackson, where he was CEO, to lead the MRO team under HMA’s “Getting2Great” initiative. Silverman, a Madison resident since 2004, also brought along CMMC ER director John Williams, MD, as the new hospital’s ER and ICU director. Beth Gasson, RN, long-time clinical director at River Oaks Hospital in Flowood, also relocated from within the HMA system, joining as MRO’s new director of perioperative services. Davis Richards, who served as interim CEO of MRO before Silverman was named, now serves in the new post of vice president of community and government relations for HMA’s Division 4.

“We’ve done a lot of staffing to support the larger capacity of the newer hospital,” said Cotton, “including a full time hospitalist and Kim Wade, health information management director.”

Recent additions also include Thomas Cobb, PharmD, as director of pharmacy, and Linda Dunigan as assistant administrator.

The opening of MRO—now the only hospital in Madison County— marked a celebratory milestone in the longtime struggle to build a new hospital for residents in one of the state’s fastest-growing counties. Nine years ago, Madison County Medical Center was burdened with $9 million in debt and struggling financially to provide medical services to the area’s rising population when HMA took over its management. Plans to build a new hospital in Madison County—launched in 2004—were challenged by other hospital systems, yet in late 2009, Madison County leaders broke ground on the full-service hospital, which features 24-hour emergency care, general surgery, orthopedics, women’s services and obstetrics, pediatrics, neurology, urology, intensive care, laboratory with radiology and advanced diagnostics and clinical technology. Last August, the Mississippi Department of Health denied a certificate of need to St. Dominic’s Hospital, which had pitched plans to move 71 beds from its Jackson base to a proposed new $121 million hospital near Madison.

The obvious initial change the medical community will notice with the opening of MRO is that its location gives them access to growth opportunities in the Madison market, said Silverman. (The number of doctors in Madison County doubled with the opening of the new hospital.)

“We’ll offer extensive, hospital-based diagnosis and treatment capabilities to support the work of physicians and health professionals who live right here in Madison County, and want to work here as well,” he said. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the excitement in the community … about this new hospital. There’s good reason to be excited. Madison River Oaks is an outstanding facility, which will have a positive impact for the community.”

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