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Jawun Bean of West Point talks with nurse practitioner Marguerite Baker during his endocrinology appointment at Children's of Mississippi's Tupelo Specialty Clinic.
Jawun Bean of West Point talks with nurse practitioner Marguerite Baker during his endocrinology appointment at Children's of Mississippi's Tupelo Specialty Clinic.

Children’s of Mississippi’s Tupelo Specialty Clinic: 10 years of care closer to home

Published on Monday, February 3, 2025

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

Photos By: Joe Ellis/ UMMC Communications

For years, Jawun Bean has been keeping his Type 1 diabetes in check by seeing Marguerite Baker, a nurse practitioner at Children’s of Mississippi’s Tupelo Specialty Clinic, less than an hour away from his home in West Point.

"We wouldn’t take anything for Dr. Baker and this clinic,” said his grandmother, Earnestine Ivy. “They talk to him about his care and makes sure he has the information he needs to stay healthy at school and at home.”

Jawun gets the care he needs closer to home, thanks to Children’s of Mississippi’s Tupelo Specialty Clinic, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The ribbon was cut Jan. 21, 2015, opening a clinic that became a model for Children’s of Mississippi.

Full-time services at the clinic, located in Tupelo’s Journal Business Park, include pediatric cardiology, endocrinology and dietetics. Monthly clinics are available in pediatric gastroenterology, general surgery, neurology, orthopaedics and plastic surgery, and telehealth is facilitated at the clinic for adult congenital heart disease, forensic medicine, genetics, psychiatry and urology.

Children’s of Mississippi and UMMC also provide coverage for inpatient pediatrics and pediatric intensive care at North Mississippi Medical Center and neonatal intensive care at NMMC Women’s Hospital. Children's of Mississippi and UMMC also partner with NMMC in general pediatrics at Children’s Clinic in Tupelo.

Guy Giesecke
Giesecke

“Children’s of Mississippi is committed to helping all children in the state reach their full potential,” said Dr. Guy Giesecke, Children’s of Mississippi CEO. “That requires bringing specialty care closer to home for our patients around the state, which reduces travel time and expense and increases access to care. Our Tupelo Specialty Clinic was the first of our outpatient specialty clinics, and it has helped pave the way for others. We’re very proud of the decade of care they’ve provided and are excited for the clinic’s future.”

Community health care for families is essential in Mississippi, where 65 of 82 counties are defined as rural.

The success of the Tupelo clinic, for patients and providers, ignited an expansion of children’s specialty care across the state. UMMC’s pediatric arm, Children’s of Mississippi includes the state’s only children’s hospital in Jackson and specialty clinics in Biloxi, Meridian, Hattiesburg, Iuka, Grenada and McComb.

In the Jackson metro area, clinics are available at the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower, the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, the Eli Manning Clinics for Children on the UMMC campus, at the Center for Advancement of Youth in northeast Jackson and in the Grants Ferry Clinic in Flowood.

Kristi Stone, nurse manager, said the camaraderie among staff members and watching patients grow up are two of the blessings of providing care at the Tupelo Specialty Clinic.

“We have a great team here,” she said, “and we love our families. Many of our patients have been coming to us for years.”

Children's of Mississippi patient Jerome Brooks of Macon watches as his cardiologist, Dr. Kalyl Cable, analyzes his echocardiogram.
Children's of Mississippi patient Jerome Brooks of Macon watches as his cardiologist, Dr. Kalyl Cable, analyzes his echocardiogram.

Dr. Kalyl Cable, assistant professor of cardiology, said the Tupelo clinic’s cardiologists and cardiac nurse practitioner work with the Children’s Heart Center at the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson.

“This brings the combined skills and knowledge of pediatric cardiology to patients in north Mississippi,” he said.

The collaboration to bring a specialized level of care to children in Tupelo and the surrounding area involves local providers in the city, said Baker, who sees children with various conditions including diabetes, prediabetes and thyroid disease, among others.

Jerome Brooks of Macon, a patient at Children's of Mississippi's Tupelo Specialty Clinic, watches a video on his mother's phone while getting an echocardiogram by Reese Fraidy, sonographer.
Jerome watches a video on his mother's phone while getting an echocardiogram by Reese Fraidy.

“I’m thankful for the collaboration with UMMC but also with the pediatricians in Tupelo,” she said. “We’re honored to work with the patients they refer to us and work to see those patients as quickly as possible.”

Lorna Kernizan, chief ambulatory officer of Children’s of Mississippi, said the Tupelo Specialty Clinic team and physicians who travel to see patients there “have done an admirable job in networking and building relationships with our northeast Mississippi community of pediatric providers. The dedication of our subspecialists is appreciated by everyone to ensure we continue to serve this population.”