Tennessee health system poised to acquire Mississippi hospital

With plans to acquire another hospital in Mississippi, Baptist Memorial Health Care continues to grow.

Baptist Memorial Health Care, based in Memphis, Tenn., has reached an agreement to purchase OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville, Mississippi.

Baptist Memorial has reached an agreement to purchase OCH Regional Medical Center, a publicly-owned hospital in Starkville, Mississippi. The health system and the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors announced the agreement last week.

Based in Memphis, Tennessee, Baptist Memorial has agreed to buy the hospital for $55 million. The health system says it will also invest nearly $97 million into the facility. OCH Regional is the only hospital in Starkville, a city of about 25,000.

Regulators must still sign off on the transaction, but they expect the deal to close by the end of September.

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Jason Little, president and CEO of Baptist Memorial Health Care, said he’s looking forward to adding the hospital to the system.

“We are grateful for the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors’ thorough and fair handling of the proposal process, which we believe was a win-win for the Starkville community, OCH and Baptist,” Little said in a statement. “As we enter the final phase of this process as the preferred partner for the hospital, we look forward to welcoming the OCH team into the Baptist Memorial Health Care family and extending access to high-quality care throughout the region.”

Marvell Howard, president of the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors, said the agreement helps secure a promising future for OCH Regional Medical Center. The county has said the $55 million purchase price will be “transformative.”

“Signing this agreement with Baptist Memorial Health Care marks a pivotal step toward a partnership that will ensure our hospital not only survives but thrives,” Howard said in a statement. “We have pursued this partnership to ensure our friends, neighbors and families will have access to high-quality, local health care for decades to come.”

In addition to taking over the hospital, Baptist Memorial plans to retain all of the medical center’s employees and keep them at their current benefit levels. The health system says it will also maintain all of OCH Regional’s existing service lines and plans to add additional healthcare services.

Baptist Memorial plans to improve OCH Regional’s facilities and technology, and will spend $96.8 million in capital investments. More than a third of that money - $34 million - will be used to expand services and recruit additional doctors.

The health system also says it will ensure local governance of OCH Regional, including a local advisory board that will be made up by a majority of residents in the medical center’s service area.

Baptist Memorial Health Care operates 24 hospitals with more than 3,800 total beds in Tennessee, Mississippi and northeastern Arkansas. In April, the system announced a merger agreement with Arkansas Methodist Medical Center.

Last year, Baptist Memorial completed its acquisition of Anderson Regional Health System.

Baptist Memorial is the largest healthcare provider in Mississippi, as the system operates 12 hospitals in the state, according to Fitch Ratings. Earlier this month, Fitch assigned a 'BBB+' rating to Baptist Memorial. Baptist Memorial now holds 26.5% of the competitive Memphis market, making it the leader in the region.

Baptist Memorial generated $4.3 billion in revenue in the 2024 fiscal year.

OCH Regional earned an “A” grade from The Leapfrog Group in its spring 2025 hospital safety grades.

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