Persistence pays

The celebration was well earned Wednesday in Olive Branch for the opening of a new 100-bed hospital that in its earliest planning stages was challenged as a redundancy for the people of DeSoto County.

Hundreds of people packed into a tent to mark the event, which wouldn’t have been possible without the sincere and persistent lobbying efforts on its behalf.

The latest addition to Methodist Healthcare’s family of medical facilities, a short drive from Baptist Memorial Healthcare’s hospital in Southaven, faced early opposition in a formal process designed to curb the rising cost of care by preventing the duplication of services in defined geographical areas.

But in a year-long campaign proponents argued that rapid growth in eastern DeSoto County and northwest Marshall County justified the need for a second hospital in the area, winning approval of the project in July 2010.

All that was water over the dam for the big crowd at a grand opening that drew so many people it created a traffic snarl near the hospital at Bethel Road and U.S. 78 and a standing-room-only crowd where once there was a pasture.

It was like the celebration of a winning high school sports team, said Mayor Scott Phillips. Of course, like any season the assessment of the hospital’s success will have to wait for some time, but at this point the victory seems clear.