Forrest Health’s Pearl River County Hospital Breaks Ground on Emergency Department Modernization
POPLARVILLE, Miss. – (March 20, 2025) Forrest Health administration and members of the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors were joined by city and county officials, and employees as they broke ground Wednesday, March 19, on a modernization project for Pearl River County Hospital’s Emergency Department. This will include a significant interior remodel and reworked exterior entrances enhancing both functionality and appearance for staff, patients, and visitors.
A key upgrade to the hospital will be a modernized Emergency Department with all new cutting-edge Trauma and Exam rooms. A dedicated new ambulance canopy and entrance will be beneficial for rapid emergency responses. Other improvements include a dedicated walk-in entrance featuring new waiting areas, Registration, and Triage and upgraded Imaging Suites equipped with advanced X-ray and CT capabilities. A reconfigured layout will enhance the flow and efficiency of patient care. Exterior upgrades will include new high-visibility emergency signage and other improvements.
“We are excited about this project and what it will mean to the patients we serve here in Pearl River County and those from surrounding areas, as well as those who work here around the clock,” said Kevin Hedgepeth, PRCH administrator. “We are very thankful to Mississippi U.S. Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker for helping us obtain grant money to help with this modernization project, as well as Forrest Health for matching these funds. Also, thank you to the Board of Supervisors for their support.
“As an old ER nurse, I am very excited about this renovation, and I know it is going to mean a great deal, not to just our staff, and Forrest Health, but to the community. It’s going to be a nice place to come. Not included in the renovation, but Forrest Health has invested in new monitoring equipment, so we will be able to have telemetry patients here on the in-patient side. We are very thankful for that.
“Even though we are getting a facelift and will look better, our staff here already provides excellent care and stands by the mission of Forrest Health, ‘to do what is best for the patient,’ and that will continue. This is going to make staff and community feel better, but we will continue the great care we render here, the care that we can, and then get you to wherever else you need to be.”
This $5.1 million project is a collaboration with the Pearl River County board of Supervisors with funding from grant sources and supplemented by Forrest Health.
“I’m very thankful for the partnership we have with Forrest Health, which was a natural fit,” said Adrain Lumpkin said. “This will, honestly, and in my opinion, go down as one of the best things the Board of Supervisors has ever done for this hospital. This partnership is a great asset. I’ve seen the renderings, and I appreciate everything Forrest Health is doing – the investment in this county as a whole, not just here, but also in the hospital and clinics in Picayune, because when people want to come to a county one of the first things they want to look at is what kind of healthcare is available. We are blessed to be partnered with Forrest Health to have first-class healthcare in Pearl River County.”
Lumpkin thanked the staff for everything they have put into the hospital. “I know a lot of times healthcare and government workers, people really don’t appreciate everything they do, but I am thankful for what y’all do making Pearl River County a better county and the healthcare we are getting and going to get,” he said. “I am thankful for the renovations; it’s going to be a totally new look.
“When JC Penny was open in Hattiesburg, there was a drawing of Forrest General in the mall, and it looked just about like this, the original hospital did. Do I expect us to grow like that? No. But do I expect this to be a total renovation that’s not going to even look like the same place when they get through? It is. A facelift makes the people in the community see and feel a difference. Not only is it going to make the hospital feel better and look better, I think they know what they are invested in is going to give us first-class healthcare in Pearl River County. We appreciate being a partner.”
Malcolm Perry, president of the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors said he was “here when I thought we were going to lose the hospital, and weren’t going to afford to keep it open.” “When I first started, our board members did the best we could, but we just weren’t good at running a hospital. We were losing money. We always push economic development, and we needed healthcare. Then we got the opportunity to partner with Forrest Health. But, it’s not just healthcare, look at all the jobs we are able to provide, about 300 employees. We would roll out the red carpet for any business that was coming into our community and provide 300 jobs. We really appreciate what Forrest Health has done.”
Forrest Health interim CEO/President, Jeff Cook, said this project was a long-time coming, noting this story started back in 2019 or 2020. “Of the communities we were serving out of Hattiesburg, one of the largest counties we serve other than Forrest County, is Pearl River County. We knew we needed to have a presence here if the county was going to give the opportunity to someone to come operate the hospital. We wanted to solidify the access to healthcare here in Poplarville.”
Cook reiterated that Pearl River County and Forrest Health both had a common purpose in forming a partnership. “The county’s purpose is to provide the best care for its constituents here, and Forrest Health’s mission is to also provide the best care for our service area. We thank Pearl River County for walking this with us. We are grateful for the partnership.”
“We are happy to be breaking ground on this Modernization Project here at Pearl River County Hospital today,” said Cook. “This project is a strategic initiative designed to enhance patient care and improve operational efficiency to better serve the community. Through a comprehensive renovation and modernization of the Emergency Department, this initiative delivers vital upgrades that help ensure the surrounding communities receive the highest level of care possible. Partially funded by a $3.6 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Resources, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the project underscores a shared commitment to advancing community health.”
As far as the modernization of the Pearl River County facility, Cook mentioned that PRCH serves as a “life-sustaining facility until you can get patients to a higher level of care, if you need to.” “We asked our senators, who we say thank you to, for grant money that was out there to help with this project,” Cook said. “With the $3.6 million to put back into Mississippi, with a Forrest Health match of about $2 million, that makes this a roughly $5-$5.5 million project, which was very much needed.”
Cook said the work, which is currently underway, will help with access - some traffic flow, pedestrian flow, and when you get inside it will help patient flow, provide better trauma space, a new CT area, and some space for clinical workers to do their jobs. We are so grateful to have this project to improve the healthcare of this area, which certainly gives anyone who is in trouble or in emergency times the right resources and the right space to do that.”
He thanked the Forrest Health Board of Trustees for their wisdom and their support, which allowed Forrest Health to get to this point, which is very impactful for this community.
“I think South Mississippi is unique and I found that out a little bit more this weekend when a tornado came through near one of our other hospitals in Tylertown,” Cook said. “When times get tough, it’s really important that we have something in our communities with our community members running it to help. I found that in this hospital. And I found it in the Tylertown hospital. It’s really important we keep investing here locally and try not to make things corporate. I found this project to be one of those to be very worthwhile and local. Our communities rally around that, and this community can rally around that.”
For more information, visit Forresthealth.org
About Pearl River County Hospital
Pearl River County Hospital is a 24-bed critical access hospital offering advanced care and life-saving intervention, swing bed rehabilitation, and a variety of outpatient services. The adjoining Pearl River County Nursing Home has 120 beds. The hospital also offers outpatient services such as physical, occupational and speech therapies, wound care, radiology and lab services, infusion therapy, acute hospital admission, EKG services and 24/7 respiratory therapy.
