Choctaw tribe signs deal for new hospital

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) – A new $55 million Choctaw Indian hospital is projected to open on the Pearl River Reservation in 2014.

The Neshoba Democrat reports that the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians signed an agreement signed in May with the federal Indian Health Services.

The Choctaws was one of only seven tribes approved for the program by the Indian Health Services.

Under the program, the Choctaws will build and equip the state-of-the-art health facility using IHS space and staffing metrics while the IHS will provide staffing and operational funding for 20 years.

The new facility will be approximately 161,000 square feet, two and half times the size of the current hospital.

The campus will have 20 acute care beds, expanded primary care, inpatient, outpatient, ambulatory, dental, diagnostic and treatment facilities as well as behavioral health and community and public health services.

“Our current facility is outdated and very space constrained,” Chief Phyliss Anderson said. “Clearly there is a great need on the Reservation for better health care solutions.”

The current Choctaw Health Center was built in 1976 for a Tribal population of 4,000. Today the current 58,000 square foot facility serves a population of more than 10,000 tribal members.

“With this new facility we will provide enhanced health care for our elders as well as preventative care and health education for our young children,” Anderson said.

The tribe also plans to renovate the current hospital to include pediatric services.

Separately, Neshoba County is building a new $19 million hospital which is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2013.

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Information from: Neshoba Democrat, http://www.neshobademocrat.com