FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2007

MUW opens new health center

By Jill D. O’Bryant

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Mississippi University for Women’s Campus Health
Center moved this week to Eckford Building thus completing the
relocation of the nursing department from outdated Taylor Hall to two
side-by-side, newly renovated buildings in the central part of campus.

While the academic nursing programs in 2005 moved from Taylor Hall, an
old building originally built to be a dormitory, to Martin Hall, a
historic building that was totally renovated into a state-of-the-art
academic showplace, the Campus Health Center remained in Taylor until
this week.

“The nursing programs and the Campus Health Center have occupied the
same building for approximately 20 years; therefore, it has been
difficult with the center located on opposite side of campus for the
past 18 months,” said Dr. Sheila Adams, dean of the College of Nursing
and Speech-Language Pathology. “Not only will it be convenient for the
nursing programs that the Campus Health Center is now right next door,
but the new location of the center will be more convenient for the
campus community.”

Features of the new center include a welcoming reception area, a triage
room, three exam rooms with new power exam tables, new lab equipment, a
conference room with a projection system for educational sessions, an
office for the nurse practitioners to consult with doctors by telephone,
the director’s office and a secure file area.

“The environment in which we can now provide services is much more
appealing for someone desiring our services,” said Amy Wallace,
director of the health center. “Having a larger building should
improve clinic flow and decrease the amount of time a visit to the
clinic would require.”

The center serves MUW and Mississippi School for Mathematics and
Science faculty, staff and students as well as dependents aged 3 and
older. It is staffed by a director, administrative assistant and nurse
practitioners who can assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe within their
established protocol.

Wallace has been employed at MUW since 1998, and she said it is like a
dream come true to work in such a beautiful facility where she and
others can help meet the health needs of the university community.

“I feel the health center provides professional, quality services to
The W community,” she said. “It is extremely nice to have a new,
spacious and professional building to continue providing these services
in.”

The renovation of Eckford for the Campus Health Center was funded by a
grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the
amount of $982,065. The project began in August 2006 with Joey Henderson
of JBHM as the architect and Burks Mordecai as the contractor.

Built in 1929 to originally house a nursery school, the building is
named after Dr. Martha Eckford, a faculty member in the early 1900s. The
building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

In addition to the renovation and furnishing of Eckford, the grant also
provided funding for two pediatric simulation models and one pediatric
megacode simulation model for the nursing programs and a Heartstride
stress test system and a computerized
hydrostatic weighting system with residual volume measurement that will
access body composition for the Department of Health and Kinesiology.