Mississippi reports second pediatric flu death
Officials from the Mississippi State Department of Health have confirmed the state’s second pediatric flu death of the 2023-2024 flu season on Thursday. A pediatric death is defined as the death of an individual under the age of 18. There have been a total of 26 pediatric flu deaths, including this one, in the state […]
Coalition of 36 organizations pushes lawmakers for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi
As Medicaid expansion remains a top political issue in Mississippi — and sure to be debated this legislative session — one group will be advocating for the policy on the front lines. Care4Mississippi is a coalition of 36 partner organizations, and growing, focused on getting Medicaid expanded in Mississippi. Co-chair Kimberly Hughes, who’s also the American Cancer […]
Report highlights strengths, weaknesses of Mississippi’s pandemic response
The Mississippi State Health Department hired an outside contractor a little over a year ago to assess how well the state responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. The answer, according to the report: pretty well. But this counters a previous report from a nonprofit that ranked Mississippi’s response last in the nation. The new report highlights […]
A small town struggles to survive in the heart of Mississippi’s hospital crisis
BELZONI – Deep in a crumbling building, there is a room filled with folders. Just a sliver of the room’s walls peek over the top of the manila piles. There are too many folders to count, with thick stacks of documents inside them, containing precious, forgotten information about a forgotten community, a community once cared […]
CDC Tracks Down Rare, Deadly Bacteria in Mississippi Gulf Region
Three patients diagnosed with melioidosis in a Mississippi Gulf Coast county probably picked up the disease from the local environment, a new report from the CDC confirms. Researchers recovered Burkholderia pseudomallei, the bacteria that causes melioidosis, from a puddle and soil from the front and backyard of one of the patients’ homes — the first […]
Governor’s allies on advisory board thwart effort to give poor moms timely health care
The state Medicaid director and a hospital CEO — neither of them doctors — bucked recommendations from health care professionals and delayed a vote that could have made it easier for expecting Mississippians to receive timely prenatal care. The move comes just days after the release of a maternal mortality report that shows Mississippi is […]
Jailed for their own safety, 14 Mississippians died awaiting mental health treatment
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Mississippi Today. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. Butch Scipper is haunted by the deaths of three men. As chancery clerk of Quitman County in the Mississippi Delta, he coordinates a legal process […]
Emergency-care hospital plans to open in Smith County
Smith County residents could soon have a hospital again. Covington County Hospital and South Central Regional Medical Center, both led by CEO Greg Gibbes, in a Dec. 5 press release announced plans to open a hospital in Raleigh in the fall. The facility in which the new Smith County Emergency Hospital would operate previously housed […]
Gov. Reeves mum on health care meetings, claims no documents exist
As the state’s hospital crisis continues, Gov. Tate Reeves has held meetings on health care, but his office refuses to say what they’re about. His staffers also claim there are no official documents for those meetings, despite internal correspondence that indicates otherwise and despite Reeves proposing detailed health policy changes. Several experts, including a former […]
Baptist, UMMC to receive $2 million each in state funds for burn centers
State Health Department officials decided to split $4 million in state funds to two Mississippi health care systems vying to open burn centers. The decision comes after months of confusion over how the money would be divided after the Legislature gave the Mississippi State Health Department the responsibility of doling out the money designated in […]