UM Med Center Celebrates New Facility

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The University of Mississippi Medical Center is celebrating the opening of a new $15 million facility to diagnose and treat heart patients.

University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones and others marked the facility’s opening Thursday, saying it consolidates services that had been scattered across the sprawling medical center campus in Jackson and provides modern facilities and equipment that will be more welcoming to patients.

The 49,000-square-foot building hosts laboratories for testing and minor surgeries, as well as recovery rooms where patients can stay overnight after such surgeries. Nestled near the main University Hospital, it currently hosts 10 to 12 patients a day.

The university’s heart program has 20 faculty cardiologists and 12 fellows – physicians seeking to become certified in the specialty. It hosts Mississippi’s only heart transplant program.