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Entergy's $500K Donation Helps Power Children's Campaign
Holding a ceremonial $500,000 donation check to the Campaign for Children's of Mississippi are, from left, Entergy Mississippi president and CEO Haley Fisackerly, Dr. Mary Taylor, chair of Pediatrics, Guy Giesecke, CEO of Children's of Mississippi and Jonathan Wilson, UMMC Chief Administrative Officer.

Entergy Mississippi is investing in the families they serve through a $500,000 donation to the Campaign for Children’s of Mississippi.

The donation from the company, celebrating 95 years of doing business in Mississippi, was announced Monday in a news conference on the UMMC campus.

"Children’s health care is important to any company,” said Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, “and we are proud to partner with Children’s of Mississippi and serve this new facility.”

The campaign, a $100 million effort to help fund UMMC’s pediatric expansion now under construction, has raised more than $67 million since 2016.

“Entergy Mississippi generates the electricity that allows the Medical Center to provide world-class health care, and Entergy is helping fuel a pediatric expansion at UMMC that is truly transformational,” said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “We thank Entergy for being our partner in health care and for making this key investment in the health of our children.”

Entergy Mississippi serves about 449,000 customers in 45 of Mississippi’s 82 counties. Entergy companies employ some 2,200 Mississippians, and more than 1,200 Entergy retirees live in the state.

The energy provider’s philanthropic focus is to improve the quality of life in the communities it serves through investing in education, improving the environment and finding solutions to poverty. Entergy Mississippi contributed more than $2 million to over 400 nonprofit organizations in the state in 2017.

“Entergy strives to contribute to a society that is healthy, educated, environmentally safe and productive,” said Fisackerly. “Having the care that’s needed right here in Mississippi is important to parents, and it is important to Entergy.”

The pediatric expansion adjacent to the state’s only children’s hospital, Batson, includes 88 private neonatal intensive care rooms. The current neonatal intensive care unit at UMMC was built for about 30 babies but routinely offers care to three times that number.

Also included is additional space for pediatric intensive care and for surgery, a department that is quickly outgrowing its current location.

“We are caring for the state’s smallest and most medically fragile newborns and are seeing outcomes similar to the nation’s top children’s hospitals,” said Dr. Mary Taylor, Suzan B. Thames Chair, professor and chair of pediatrics, “but we are achieving these results in a hospital that we’ve outgrown. This expansion will provide us with a state-of-the-art facility that will match the skills of our expert caregivers.”

When Batson Children’s Hospital patients need imaging such as CT scans and MRIs, they travel inside the hospital about a quarter of a mile to an imaging center designed for adults. In this new construction, a pediatric imaging center will be inside the children’s hospital and will be kid-friendly.

An outpatient specialty clinic will be close by, putting experts in pediatric disciplines including cardiology, neurology, urology, endocrinology, gastroenterology and orthopaedics in one location on the UMMC campus.

“Children’s of Mississippi works to touch the lives of all of the children in this state and help them reach their full potential,” said Guy Giesecke, CEO of Children’s, an organization that includes Batson as well as clinics around the state. “Entergy’s gift will help us provide Mississippi’s children the best of care close to home.”

For more information or to give to the Campaign for Children’s of Mississippi, visit growchildrens.org.

About Children’s of Mississippi — Children’s of Mississippi, part of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, encompasses all of the pediatric services available at UMMC and at clinical sites throughout Mississippi. At the heart of these services is Batson Children’s Hospital, the state’s only hospital devoted exclusively to the care and treatment of sick and injured children. The Children’s of Mississippi network brings specialized clinical care for children to communities across the state, making it easier for families to get the treatment they need closer to home.

About the University of Mississippi Medical Center — A campus of the University of Mississippi, UMMC is the state’s only academic medical center. Located in Jackson, it encompasses seven health science schools, including medicine, nursing, health related professions, dentistry, pharmacy, graduate studies and population health. The Medical Center’s health care enterprise includes the state’s only Level I trauma center and its only children’s hospital. UMMC’s education, research and health care missions share the objectives of improving the health of the state’s population and eliminating health disparities. For more information, visit http://www.umc.edu and https://www.umc.edu/PublicAffairs/Office-of-Public-Affairs.html.

About Entergy Mississippi — Entergy Mississippi, Inc. provides electricity to approximately 449,000 customers in 45 counties. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 9,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11 billion and more than 13,000 employees.

By Annie Oeth, UMMC Public Affairs

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