The Mississippi State Senate on Thursday approved a proposal to build a $151 million, 100-bed hospital in Olive Branch in a special session of the legislature.
Gov. Haley Barbour called the Upper House of the state legislature into a special session to vote on the measure, which passed 35-10. The bill must now be approved by the state's full House of Representatives.
The special measure would allow Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare to circumvent the Mississippi State Department of Health’s certificate of need process and build a new facility in the northern Mississippi town, which is a suburb of Memphis, Tenn.
“We’re on the verge of having another huge, new, stable economic engine for DeSoto County,” said state Sen. Merle Flowers, a Republican from Olive Branch and the bill’s sponsor. “Let’s hope and pray the House of Representatives agrees with us.”
Last week the Memphis-based hospital system invested $5 million in a 40-acre tract of land in Olive Branch for the proposed hospital.