High-paying medical jobs, retail slated for South MS city. There’s a catch, critics say
The first outpatient cardiac surgery center on the Mississippi Coast is planned for the city of Gautier.
Seven cardiologists and Merit Health Biloxi plan to operate the $9.6 million facility, currently called Jackson County Heart, as part of a $48 million development off Mississippi 57. Patients could get cardiac catheterizations, heart stents, and defibrillator and pacemaker implants at the facility, rather than a hospital.
The Legacy Park development would also include a walkable campus with strip malls, condominiums, restaurants, a hotel, additional medical services, a pond and other amenities.
The Gautier City Council will hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall on U.S. 90 to consider borrowing up to $7 million for public improvements, including road and utility work, for Legacy Park. The money would be repaid from the development’s property and sales taxes to the city over a 12-year period, Gautier records show.
The Jackson County Board of Supervisors, Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and Singing River Health System, which offers the same cardiac procedures at its two county-owned hospitals, oppose the bond issue. They say the city of Gautier should not help finance a private clinic that would compete with Singing River’s Pascagoula and Ocean Springs hospitals, where profitable cardiac procedures help cover services that lose money, such as mental health and indigent care.
An investment group headed by cardiologist Sati Adlakha of Pascagoula is planning the $48 million development. The outpatient cardiac surgery center would be only the third in the state, with others in Jackson and Hattiesburg, Adlakha said.
“It’s about economic development,” Gautier Mayor Casey Vaughan said. “ . . . We expect Legacy Park to spark commercial development along both sides of the Highway 57 corridor from Highway 90 to I-10.”
Outpatient heart procedures save money, doctor says
Chancery Clerk Josh Eldridge said the the deal will hurt taxpayers because it will drain revenue from Singing River Health Systems.
“We are not against the development in Gautier,” Singing River CEO Laurin St. Pe´ said. “What we’re against is the city subsidizing competition to come in here and compete with a county-owned, nonprofit health system.”
Cardiologist Adlakha believes Singing River will recover the revenue by adding more cardiologists to its staff. All seven cardiologists who would work at the outpatient center are currently performing the same procedures at Singing River but are not employed by the health system.
The health system was offered a percentage in the ownership of Jackson County Heart but the two sides couldn’t agree on terms.
Mississippi is one of the few states that requires a hospital to participate in order to operate an outpatient cardiac surgery center, one of the last specialties moving to outpatient treatment for low-risk surgeries.
The outpatient center has a transfer agreement with Merit Health Biloxi for any patients who have emergencies. But Adlakha said patients transported by ambulance can go to the nearest hospital with a surgeon, which would be Ocean Springs.
Seeing the safety rates of cardiac catheterizations, heart stent placements, and defibrillator and pacemaker implants, Adlakha said, insurance companies are pushing for outpatient care for low-risk patients. All those procedures would be performed at the outpatient clinic.
‘”It’s definitely a cost savings,” the cardiologist said. “The patients get the same high-quality care, sometimes at half the price.”
Jackson County Heart expects to find out soon whether the state Health Department will grant a Certificate of Need that the facility must have to offer the heart procedures.
Adlakha said the center also would be available to other cardiologists who want to perform outpatient surgeries there. The medical group expects to have a payroll of $1.1 million at the end of its first year, with 13 employees, excluding the doctors. Eight of the employees would be registered nurses, its filing with the state Health Department says.
Two other surgery centers and medical office space also are in the plans, but Adlakha said its too early to talk specifics. The city estimates that the medical complex build-out would create a total of 80 full- and part-time jobs with a payroll of more than $3.6 million.
Medical corridor planned for Gautier
The outpatient surgery center would sit on about two acres of the 20-acre property. Negotiations are ongoing for a national hotel chain for the site, and with other developers for various franchises, Adlakha said.
He said the first of two strip malls would be built along with the outpatient center as the project’s initial phase. The developers are working with an architect on a theme for the buildings, which would match. The strip mall could be completed in six months, while the outpatient center would take 18 months to build.
“The whole property will be walkable,” Adlakha said. “We want people to come and hang out there for a couple of hours.”
Vaughan said the development fits the city’s long-range plan for a medical corridor along Mississippi 57. Bienville Orthopedic sits northeast of Interstate 10 and Mississippi 57, while a dermatology clinic anchors the south end of 57 at U.S. 90 in Gautier.
The development pattern is similar to what has been seen on Cowan Road in Gulfport, Vaughan said. On Cowan, retail shops, condominiums, restaurants and other development have sprung up around medical offices.
This story was originally published May 6, 2024 at 10:24 AM.
