When it’s up and running, The Alyce G. Clarke Center for Medically Fragile Children is meant to be a place where patients from Batson Children's Hospital can receive long-term care in an environment that doesn't feel like a hospital.
“The acute care hospital environment is just not a conducive environment for having someone who doesn't need to be in the hospital,” Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said. … “More of a homey environment is certainly better for the child.”
The center will also be a place where the parents or caretakers of patients can receive the training needed to take care of a child with complex medical needs. These are often babies leaving the neonatal intensive care unit or others who need the support of a ventilator or a feeding tube. Jones says learning the ins and outs of medical equipment takes time.
“To adequately train parents, it's not just a day or two or three, like changing a bed dressing or something like that,” Jones said.
Having the center also removes the pressure to cut a patient’s stay short when they’re not in acute danger and another patient needs their hospital bed. Jones says this could allow longer stays for patients who’d benefit from additional monitoring or more training time for their caretaker.
The center won’t only be a more comfortable place for those kids to receive care, it will also save the state money, Jones says. Keeping someone in a hospital setting dramatically increases the cost of their care and that cost is often borne by the state or the Mississippi Division of Medicaid.
Most patients will stay at the center for 60-90 days, but there will be some who stay for years.
The center's namesake, Alyce Clarke, is a former Mississippi lawmaker who championed the effort for years before the financing bill was passed. That was when the center was planned to be housed in the thousands of unused square footage in Calvary Baptist Church. Clarke became involved after meeting Baton patients who were regularly brought to Calvary on Sundays.
“The children just loved it, and I just thought if we could do anything to help bring smiles back to them, we would be doing our part,” Clarke said.
Calvary had partnered with a nursing facility and had been lobbying for state approval to build the center for years when the church was cut out of the plan and it became a state-run project.
A nonprofit set up under the direction of former Mississippi first lady Deborah Bryant took over planning for the center until it dissolved in 2020 and the project went under UMMC control. Nancy New, a key figure in the state’s sprawling welfare scandal, served on the board of directors of Bryant’s nonprofit and was removed after her arrest.
Clarke and Calvary's congregation were devastated when the project was taken from the church, not only because of all the work that had gone into it, but also because they had hoped the Center would help revitalize the part of West Jackson they've called home for decades.
“I was hurt because I wanted to have something nice in our neighborhood, but I was happy that we were still able to get something done about it,” Clarke said. “That makes me feel like we are using the state's for a good thing and that's where I am today.”
The center’s construction is expected to be completed in the Fall of 2025.
