As communities across the country struggle through uncertaineconomic times, two Southwest Mississippi medical facilities aredoing their best to provide the best care possible to theirpatients.

In fact, King’s Daughters Medical Center was recently honored bythe Baptist Healing Trust as one of the top 10 healing hospitals inthe nation. The award, for display of “exceptional attention toloving care,” placed KDMC among the ranks of Baylor Medical Centerand other large hospitals in the U.S.

Also, the hospital last week moved into its new emergencydepartment that is designed to provide state of the art urgent careto patients in need. The new department features 19 specializedrooms, each set up with the necessary tools and medicine to treatspecific types of emergencies.

The new emergency department represents the largest part of a$12 million expansion and renovation project that has brought aboutthe modernization of many areas of the hospital. With last week’sopening, hospital patients are now able to reap even more benefitsof the project that began in 2007.

And in nearby Franklin County, new hospital management and achange in Medicare reimbursement procedures have brought itshospital back from the brink of collapse that it faced last year.Hospital officials say the moves will allow for technology updatesand additional services in the future.

While the economic prognosis for the future remains unknown,KDMC and Franklin County Memorial Hospital are striving to putpatients first and to weather any potential crisis that may appearon the horizon.