Merit Health Central in Jackson, Miss., plans to close the state's only burn center on Oct. 14, the Clarion Ledger reported Sept. 8.
The JMS Burn & Reconstructive Center includes 13 intensive care rooms, 20 burn stepdown unit rooms and a 12-room outpatient clinic. Once the center closes on Oct. 14, burn patients will be redirected to Doctors Hospital of Augusta (Ga.), Regional One Health in Memphis, Tenn., or USA Health in Mobile, Ala.
Merit Health Central in a statement sent to the news outlet pointed to difficulty recruiting specialists as the "primary reason" for closing the burn center.
"We recognize the importance of burn services to the community and the region, and we have been in discussions with other regional providers to explore the possibility of them establishing a burn program," the hospital's statement said, according to the Clarion Ledger. "We are grateful to have been able to meet the burn and reconstructive needs of patients from our state and from across the region for the past 14 years."