Construction of Center for Medically Fragile Children underway

Published on Monday, July 29, 2024

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

Photos By: Jay Ferchaud/ UMMC Communications

Children with complex medical conditions will soon have a place where they can live and their families can get the training needed to care for them at home.

Construction of the Alyce G. Clarke Center for Medically Fragile Children is now underway in a wooded lot off Eastwood Drive in Jackson. The first and only such facility in Mississippi, the home will serve patients younger than 19 who need skilled care because of the complexity of their medical conditions.

The need for a facility for medically fragile children in the state was recognized in the late 2010s, when Children’s of Mississippi had several patients with long-term complex care needs.

“For long-term residents, this will feel like a home,” said Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Mississippi Center. “They won’t feel like they are in a hospital, even though they will be provided with the same level of care.”

Children’s of Mississippi is the pediatric arm of UMMC that includes the state’s only children’s hospital. Clarke, a former state representative and the first African American woman to serve in the Mississippi Legislature, was a key advocate for the project.

The 20-bed facility will have two wings with a common area that will serve as a living room space.

Patients at the center will range from newborns who may not have been able to wean off ventilators and need an additional 60 to 90 days to adolescents 19 or younger recovering from accidents or living with conditions that require skilled nursing care.

Conditions of patients at the center will vary. Some who will live at the center have been injured in accidents, while others have congenital or genetic conditions. Other patients may be dependent on technology such as ventilators or feeding tubes to survive and may rely on wheelchairs.

The center will also be a place where parents can learn how to care for their medically fragile children before taking them home, Jones said.

“Babies leaving neonatal intensive care may require a feeding tube or a ventilator, and their parents will require training,” he said. “Those patients can go to the center while their parents learn how to take care of them.”

The center can also be a bridge from pediatric inpatient care to home for patients and their parents.

“Parents need to be comfortable with their children’s medical equipment, and troubleshooting will need to be done so they know how to handle any issues at home,” Jones said. “That can take time. Alarms on equipment may not go off every day or even every week. We want parents to be comfortable in any scenario that might arise.”

In 2019, the Mississippi Legislature created the Alyce G. Clarke Center for Medically Fragile Children and issued $12.5 million in bonds to the center the same year. An additional $2 million in bonds were issued in 2020.

Ground was broken on the project in December 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the project.

“The pandemic did affect our progress,” Jones said. “There were supply chain issues and limited numbers of some resources, and then costs rose. We had to redo our original plans to make sure we had the necessary funds. After the pandemic, we got back on track.”

The center’s construction, which started this spring, is expected to be completed by fall 2025.

Dr. Christian Paine, chief of the Division of Pediatric Palliative Medicine, said the center has been a vision for patients and their care teams over the years.

“The completion of a new home for children with medical complexity in Mississippi will show that, together, children’s dreams and caregivers’ hearts have the power to change their world,” Paine said. “For years, Children’s of Mississippi and its staff have provided for the loving care of children with lifelong ventilator dependence when no other local facility was available. This meant allowing children to remain long-term near their families and communities here in our state despite Children’s of Mississippi’s acute care model and inadequate resource support from payors.”

Now, with the new Center, children who are incapable, for one reason or another, of living at home on advanced respiratory support, will finally have a home of their own, he said.

“This new facility is designed to look and feel like each room is an individual home. In addition, children whose families are training to learn the skills necessary to eventually move home with medical technology will have a more home-like environment in which to learn.”