Baptist Memorial Health Care welcomed Baptist Memorial Hospital-Rankin County team members during a celebration at the hospital in Brandon, Mississippi, on Oct. 22. Baptist Rankin County team members wore their Baptist T-shirts as they met with Baptist Memorial leaders, attended the prayer cross dedication and enjoyed a photo booth.
Baptist Memorial also hosted a news conference that morning to announce the new hospital name, discuss future plans for the hospital and celebrate the lease transfer that became official on Oct. 1.
“What we’re about is partnering with communities to take care of local citizens,” said Jason Little, president and CEO of Baptist Memorial Health Care, at the news conference. “We believe that the best health care is local health care, and we all have our shoulder to the wheel to do that right here in Rankin County. It’s an exciting time for us, and I believe our best days are ahead of us.”
Baptist Memorial committed to making significant investments to enhance the hospital and its services when Rankin County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on June 2 to assign the lease for Merit Health Rankin hospital and its operations to Baptist Memorial Health Care.
“We plan to expand beyond the core hospital necessities, including general surgery and medicine subspecialities to allow for growth here in Rankin County at this hospital,” said Brad Beattie, administrator and CEO of Baptist Rankin County, at the news conference. “We want to operate a critical care unit. We already have emergency medicine, radiology, pathology, anesthesia and hospital medicine in place. We want to expand surgical capabilities to include general surgery, robotic surgery and other specialties. This includes the addition of Intuitive da Vinci surgical robots. That is already in the works. We plan to upgrade hospital core facilities, including air handling unit replacements. We’ve already started and plan to continue a campus beautification project that includes new interior and exterior signage and landscaping.”
Baptist Rankin County is a 134-bed community-oriented hospital located at 350 Crossgates Blvd. in Brandon, Mississippi. The hospital is easily accessible from both Interstate 20 and Highway 80, and offers a wide range of diagnostic, emergency, inpatient and geriatric behavioral health services, including an 18-bed senior care program (geriatric psychiatry).
