As of Saturday at 6 a.m. Highland Community Hospital will begin serving patients from its newly constructed facility, which is visible from U.S. Highway 11.

Current inpatients will begin being moved to the new facility on Saturday, and hospital staff asks all new patients to report to the new location beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday. That includes anyone who needs emergency care.

Patients should use the newly constructed Highland Commons Parkway to access the new hospital, but only from U.S. Hwy. 11 at this time. Highland Commons from Mississippi Highway 43 North hasn’t been completed.

The road going directly to the hospital from U.S. Hwy. 11 is for emergency vehicles only, and is clearly marked for that purpose.

Highland Commons Parkway’s intersection with U.S. Hwy. 11 is easily determined with the installation this week of a traffic light at that intersection.

Those who wish to visit Highland Community Hospital patients on Saturday are asked to wait until 10 a.m. to enter the facility. Visitors need to note that the new facility will be tobacco free, which means no smoking, chewing or dipping.

Patients wishing to access the emergency room can follow signs along that clearly marked road into the hospital campus. The emergency department is located at the west side of the building.

Hospital staff will not accept patients at the old location on Goodyear Boulevard for any reason after 6 a.m. Saturday. All emergencies should go to the new location after 6 a.m. Saturday.

To get to the new hospital from the south, take U.S. Hwy. 11 north from its intersection with Miss. 43 North at the Clairborne Hill shopping center to the new traffic signal and turn onto Highland Commons Parkway, take a right off of Highland Commons Parkway into the entrance and follow the signs to the proper department. From the north, travel down U.S. Hwy. 11 from Carriere and turn left onto Highland Commons at the traffic signal. Visitor parking is located at the front of the building.

Other changes are taking place in conjunction with the opening of the hospital’s new campus. Motorists who used to access Richardson Ozona Road from the north bound lane of U.S. Hwy. 11 will no longer be able to take that route. Instead, Richardson Ozona Road will accessed from Hayden Oaks Road.

Hayden Oaks intersects with the highway where Super Soaker Car Wash is located. Hayden Oaks also may be the best way for traffic coming off of Richardson Ozona Road trying to access U.S. Hwy. 11, since the new traffic light at Highland Commons often will back traffic up to or past the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 11 and Richardson Ozona Road.

The address of the new hospital is 130 Highland Commons Parkway and the phone number after the hospital begins accepting patients on Saturday is 601-358-9400. The old phone number will continue to work for an undetermined period of time.