SUBURBAN HOSPITAL
Methodist Olive Branch will serve area’s growing population
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Olive Branch overcomes criticism with opening.
Mississippi politicians ranging from the city mayor to the state’s governor and a United States senator turned out to celebrate the grand opening in Olive Branch of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare’s $100 million hospital.
The welcome displayed with the ribbon- cutting Wednesday wasn’t quite so universal four years ago, when Memphis-based Methodist sought permission from the state of Mississippi to reach over the state line and build a hospital in Olive Branch.
Baptist Memorial Health Care, which 25 years ago opened the first DeSoto County hospital in neighboring Southaven, initially opposed Methodist’s project. Mississippi’s Division of Medicaid, the joint federal and state program providing health care for poor people, also objected to Methodist’s plans, fearing its cost would rise.
But explosive population growth in the Mississippi suburbs of Memphis, coupled with the travel of thousands of Mississippi residents to Methodist hospitals in Tennessee, made a case for building south of the border.
Methodist intends to draw to Olive Branch the Mississippi residents who until now have been crossing the state line to its hospitals in Tennessee, including Methodist’s University, North and South hospitals in Memphis and Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown. Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis also is a member of the Methodist family.
Mississippi residents accounted for 3,000 MRIs, 700 cardiac catheterization procedures, 175 openheart surgeries, and more than 650 births at its Tennessee hospitals, according to the “certificate of need” Methodist filed with Mississippi’s Department of Health in 2009.
But population growth in DeSoto County — the number of Olive Branch residents grew by 60 percent from 2000-2010 and DeSoto County’s popula- tion is projected to continue to swell — will drive demand for hospital services.
“Yes, we will have some minimal effect on the patients from Mississippi that are utilizing our Tennessee hospitals at this point in time,” said David Baytos, chief executive officer of Methodist Healthcare Olive Branch Hospital.
“But by bringing the hospital here in Missis-