A project is moving forward that will provide help for Mississippi’s sick kids. The state will soon have the first pediatric palliative care facility. The Mississippi State Department of Health has issued a Certificate of Need (CON) for the Mississippi Center for Medically Fragile Children to construct an over 25,000 square-foot facility that will help Mississippi lead the nation in long-term pediatric palliative care.
During the Governor’s State of the State address he announced the plans to create the Palliative Care Facility. The legislature later passed the bill that would help build the non-profit center at no cost to the state or the taxpayers.
First Lady Deborah Bryant has been a strong proponent of the project and has said in the past that the center will serve as a home for some of the most medically fragile children in the state who are currently living at Batson Children’s Hospital and as a transition facility.
“I think we take for granted some of these children how long they have been in the hospital, what people don’t realize is that there are children who could be moved out, but because they need a little bit of skilled care, kind of a transitional care, this would be a transitional care facility. They can move into this with their parents, be trained up to be taken home, so that their parents have a seamless transition to home.”
The term “medically fragile” refers to an array of chronic medical conditions that require specialized care. Patients are typically medically dependent (i.e. infusion therapy, intravenous medications, etc.) or technologically dependent (i.e. ventilator, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG), etc.).
The project is expected to cost $12,844,340 for the construction of the facility that will treat and be able to house 30 children and individuals over the age of 21.
