By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
April 17, 2004
Charles Carlisle is the new director of East Mississippi State Hospital.
Carlisle, who has been the hospital's assistant director for two years, succeeds Dr. Ramiro J. Martinez, who has been in charge of the hospital for 16 years.
Betty Moffett, public information director of the hospital, said Friday that the change is effective immediately. The announcement was made in a news release.
Carlisle and Martinez were not immediately available for comment and could not discuss the switch, or the hospital's on-campus nursing home, which was found not to be in compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month.
The nursing home, named the Reginald P. White Skilled Care Facility, was put on notice by CMS that the Medicare program will not make payment for inpatient nursing services to residents who are admitted after Sunday.
Last month, Judy Lang, spokesperson with the CMS regional office in Atlanta, said the nursing home's termination date for Medicare and Medicaid was Sunday, unless the nursing home can correct its problems by that time.
She did not return a phone call on Friday.
In a previous interview she declined to specify what problems were determined at the nursing home by a survey that was done by the state health department, but said: "The survey identified serious deficiencies that constituted immediate jeopardy to the residents' health and safety."
Meanwhile, the hospital is building a new nursing home near the Jaycee Soccer Complex on Lakeland Drive, off of Old Eighth Street Road, to take the place of the current one. It will be named the Reginald P. White Nursing Home Facility.
The $11.5 million project was partially funded in 2001 by the Legislature. The project includes construction of two 120-bed single story buildings.
Moffett said Friday that Martinez has accepted a position as full-time staff physician at the hospital.
In the news release, Martinez described his years as director of the hospital as rewarding.
Before being named director of East Mississippi State Hospital in 1988, Martinez was a staff physician and assistant clinical director of the hospital. He started working there in 1973.