Quitman County hospital reopens with 24-hour emergency care
Marks got its hospital back after five years, restoring 24-hour emergency care and a 25-bed acute-care facility on Getwell Drive.
Quitman County residents once again have 24-hour emergency care in Marks, with Quitman Community Hospital reopened after five years and back in service as a 25-bed acute care facility at 340 Getwell Drive.
The county’s hospital closed on October 31, 2016, when it was Quitman County’s largest employer with 99 workers. By the time the Quitman County Board of Supervisors voted on September 8, 2021, to reopen it, residents had been forced to drive at least 30 minutes for emergency care. The reopening plan called for a fully functioning medical-surgical hospital with an around-the-clock emergency department, and the hospital reopened in November 2021 with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for November 12 at 10:30 a.m.
Getting the hospital back took county money and regional partnerships. The reopening was backed by a one-million-dollar loan secured by the county and provided by Citizens Bank of Marks. The effort also involved Panola Medical Center in Batesville and the Delta Medical Foundation, with Quentin Whitwell of Progressive Health System helping manage the reopening. Manuel Killebrew said 75 to 100 good-paying jobs would return to Quitman County, and state Sen. Robert Jackson said the comeback restored critical care access for county residents.
The hospital’s regulatory filing with the Mississippi State Department of Health lists Quitman Community Hospital as a not-for-profit acute care hospital managed by Progressive Health System of Batesville and governed by nine officers and directors.
The hospital offers 24/7 emergency care, radiology, respiratory therapy, and lab services. Plans include an inpatient senior care unit and an Intensive Outpatient Program to address mental-health needs in the community. Congressman Bennie Thompson linked the closure to Governor Tate Reeves’ refusal to expand Medicaid. Six rural hospitals have closed in Mississippi since 2014, and a 2020 Chartis Center for Rural Health study found 64% of the state’s remaining rural hospitals were at high risk of closure.
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