UMMC Hand Center earns accreditation as the first-ever Center of Excellence in hand surgery
Published on Monday, April 21, 2025
By: Rachel Vanderford, rvanderford@umc.edu
Photos By: Joe Ellis/UMMC Communications
The Jabaley-Songcharoen Center for Hand, Upper Extremity and Nerve Surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center has officially been named a Center of Excellence in Surgery of the Hand by the Surgical Review Corportation, becoming the first in the world to earn this newly established designation for hand surgery centers.
The Center’s journey began in fall 2023 when Dr. Marc Walker, the Center’s director and only pediatric hand surgeon in Mississippi, contacted SRC to be a third-party evaluator of the Center. After a rigorous review of the training requirements for board-certified hand surgeons and the case volume and variety typically presenting to hand centers around the country, UMMC would not only help shape the criteria for Center of Excellence status, but it would also undergo an intense external evaluation of its own operations to prove that it could meet them.
“It was a thorough review—not just of the Hand Center and all its moving parts, but of the institution as a whole,” Walker said.
The result is a standard-setting model for excellence in hand care. The Hand Center’s multidisciplinary team spans plastic surgery, orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation. Together, they care for all types of patients—from children with hand differences to adults recovering from trauma or suffering with chronic nerve conditions.
For patients like Trey Wheeler of Brandon, that collaborative care is life changing. After an accident with an excavator nearly cost him his arm, he came within a millimeter of amputation. With coordinated care from the Hand Center team, including multiple surgeries and rehabilitation, he is regaining function and returning to daily life.
“I wondered why the scar after surgery was all the way up to my elbow,” said Wheeler. “Dr. [John] Morellato said that I was one millimeter away from losing that part of my arm.”
After the initial surgery to clear the infection, Morellato, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery, removed bone fragments from Wheeler’s arm and stabilized the break with titanium plates. But as his arm began to heal, Wheeler noticed he wasn’t regaining control of his middle finger the same way he was the others. That’s when he was referred to Walker, who performed reconstructive hand surgery, borrowing a tendon from Wheeler’s index finger to restore motion and function to the injured middle finger.
“I’m just so grateful for them,” said Wheeler. “They know what they’re doing, and I wouldn’t be at this point if it weren’t for Dr. Walker and Dr. Morellato.”
“It is more beneficial for each department to work collaboratively than for any one of them to stand alone in the care of hand and upper extremity patients,” Walker said. “When we are all together at the same table, every department is elevated, and our patients receive the comprehensive care they deserve.”
The SCR’s Center of Excellence designation isn’t a one-time accolade. It comes with continued examination.
“With this designation, we have voluntarily signed up for constant review, external oversight and criticism,” Walker said. “The SRC will conduct an on-site review every three years and a data review every year. We want to be the very best we can be, and they will hold us to that. Being a Center of Excellence, we are obligated to constantly stay on the cutting-edge and ensure that we are producing the best outcomes for our patients.”
That commitment to excellence extends beyond clinical care. When two current UMMC occupational therapists expressed interest in pursuing further education specific to hand therapy, the Center sponsored their attendance to the Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy, held alongside the same Congress for Societies of International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand in Washington, D.C.
“The Congress occurs once every three years and was an opportunity not to be missed for our therapists. This is exactly the type of educational advancement that the Hand Center was founded to support, and we are thankful to the Rehabilitation Department for enabling the therapists to travel funded by the Hand Center and without the need to take personal leave,” Walker said. “Without the Center, we wouldn’t have been able to support this. It’s the kind of investment that allows us to grow in ways that directly affect our patients and clinical outcomes.
“We really underappreciate our hands when they are working well,” he said. “We use our hands for everything. We use them to work, to eat, to communicate, to shake hands, to wave hello and goodbye, to get dressed, and to play. Treating hand conditions, we are helping people get back to their lives. We’re allowing children to be children again.”
Recognition of this excellence reached the global stage in March when the Center’s founder and namesake, Dr. Somprasong Songcharoen, received the Global Pioneer in Hand Surgery Award in Washington D.C., a milestone that coincided with the Center’s accreditation.
Looking ahead, the Center is preparing for a new home in Colony Park North when the facility opens in 2026.
The move will unite plastic and orthopaedic hand surgery, clinic evaluations and follow-up appointments and hand therapy under one roof. The new location will also expand access to elective procedures and innovative techniques like WALANT, which stands for Wide Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet, where patients are able to take part in the surgical process.
“During the surgery, I can ask a patient to move the middle finger, for example, and I’ll know right away whether we have connected it properly,” Walker said.
Most importantly, the Hand Center’s future move to the Ambulatory Surgery Center and clinic space in Colony Park North will enable the team to serve more patients in Mississippi and across the southeast region with chronic or elective hand conditions well beyond those in need of emergency or reconstructive surgery.