The University of Mississippi Medical Center has received permission to provide care for burn patients, months after another hospital closed the only other burn center in the state.

The governing board for the state’s eight public universities met Thursday and approved the medical center’s request to operate a burn center on UMMC’s main campus in Jackson.

“This approval confirms our commitment to providing complex care to burn patients so they can receive timely care close to home and with the trusted expertise of the Mississippi’s only academic medical center,” Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs, said in a news release. “We want to keep burn care in Mississippi for Mississippians.”

A burn center at a Jackson hospital, Merit Health Central, closed in October. That center had 13 burn intensive care patient rooms, 20 burn step-down unit patient rooms and a 12-room outpatient clinic.

State legislators previously directed UMMC to establish a burn center. The medical center will collaborate with the Mississippi State Department of Health to finalize accreditation of the Mississippi Burn Center, according to the news release.