McComb Enterprise-Journal
New primary care opens: Sen. Hyde-Smith secured funding, attends opening
By JACK RYAN - Editor
The weather was sunny and blazing hot Wednesday afternoon during the opening ceremonies for the Southwest Primary Care building. But it also was clear that the mission to improve the area’s elementary medical treatment is warming up.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Brookhaven was among the 100 guests at the event, held under a large tent in the parking lot of the building, located across Marion Avenue from Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center at the corner of Aston Avenue.
“Mississippi needs every doctor we can get, and that’s why this ribbon-cutting today is so meaningful,” Hyde-Smith told the assembly. “There was a real gap that this facility is helping to close.”
The senator obtained $5.7 million in federal funding for the building, which used to house multiple businesses. The hospital bought the 14,000 square-foot property, renovated it into a single-use facility and resurfaced the parking lot that surrounds the east and north sides of the building.
The building’s two main functions are to serve as a headquarters for Southwest’s medical residency program, which is now in its third year; and to provide primary care medical treatment from doctors formerly known as family practitioners.
Among other features, the renovated building has 25 patient examination rooms, and a classroom area where the medical residents gather weekly for meetings with specialists and other education. The medical residents will see patients in the building.
During the opening ceremony, speakers emphasized the importance of local medical care, and the Primary Care building’s role in it.
Southwest Health chief operating officer Robert Weathersby said the building will be where “future physicians learn what it means to practice medicine.”
Dr. Keith Speed, the residency program director, said the building will increase access to primary care. He predicted that some of the doctors who complete their three-year medical residency in McComb will stay here or in Mississippi to practice.
“Today we’re celebrating a building,” Speed said. “But more importantly, we’re celebrating what will happen inside this building.” He added that the building is not just a clinic but an investment in this area’s future.
A third-year medical resident, Dr. Joseph Reinshagen, said it was an honor to be a member of the first group of residents to train at Southwest in 2024. One thing he learned about the job, he said, is that patient relationships matter, because “we might run into each other at Wal-Mart.”