Five Questions
Good morning!
Normally I respond to your questions on the last Friday of the month, but due to next week’s Thanksgiving holiday I’m moving the Q&A to today and will send an abbreviated message next week.
As a reminder, I read all your questions and comments and appreciate hearing from you. While I’m only able to respond directly to a few of them in this column, I pass the rest along to senior administrators for review and possible action.
Now, on to your questions.
Q: Last week I got a piece of mail from our state health insurance plan encouraging state employees to use a telehealth service other than UMMC's. This concerned me because we are a part of Mississippi state government and when one looks at the state’s administration as a whole, this is a loss of revenue for the governmental body. Why would the state be marketing against itself?
A: To clarify, the mailer you received would not have been sent by the administrators of our State and School Employees’ Health Plan. It was produced and sent by Amwell, a for profit telehealth provider. Access to UMMC’s telehealth services is available to participants of the state health plan, but Amwell is designated as the preferred telehealth provider under the plan. They were awarded that designation following a competitive bid process. For reasons of cost, we would not print and mail a flyer to every state employee as Amwell did but we do promote our telehealth services through direct communication to state agencies as well as to UMMC employees. Mississippi’s employees have a choice for their direct-to-consumer telehealth-based urgent care but, of course, we encourage state employees to choose our program through the UMMC 2 You app. This app, developed and supported by the UMMC Center for Telehealth, is a tried and true option available to receive minor medical care supported by the state’s only academic medical center. For Select Plan participants, a visit cost is a $10 co-pay and for Base Plan participants the charge is a $49 co-pay until your deductible is met and then it’s only $10. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to download the app (for Apple and for Android) and sign up so it’s ready when you need it.
Q: I would like some clarification on donating sick leave to coworkers. Recently someone told me you cannot donate sick leave to a coworker who is having a baby. This disturbed me initially since there are many complications that can arise in pregnancy either with the mother's health or the infant's health. Can you please clarify exactly what our sick leave policy allows when it comes to maternal health leave?
A: As a state entity, UMMC’s paid personal and major medical leave policies are reflective of state regulations that govern both of these paid time off benefits. With help from our Human Resources team, I’ve included below some relevant excerpts from the Mississippi codes that outline the rules about donating leave to a fellow employee:
“Any employee may donate a portion of his or her earned personal leave or major medical leave to another employee who is suffering from a catastrophic injury or illness….”
“’Catastrophic injury or illness’ means a life-threatening injury or illness…which totally incapacitates the employee from work, as verified by a licensed physician, and forces the employee to exhaust all leave time earned by that employee, resulting in the loss of compensation from the state for the employee. Conditions that are short-term in nature, including, but not limited to, common illnesses such as influenza and the measles, and common injuries, are not catastrophic. Chronic illnesses or injuries, such as cancer or major surgery, which result in intermittent absences from work and which are long-term in nature and require long recuperation periods may be considered catastrophic.” Additional information included in the regulation explain that this donor leave process is available to any full-time or part-time employee for his/her qualifying health issue or that of an immediate family member defined as spouse, parent, step-parent, sibling, child or step-child.
Pregnancy as a medical condition does not fall within the above legal definition of catastrophic illness or injury and therefore an application to donate leave in which the reason for the absence is pregnancy would not qualify. However, if an employee and/or her newborn suffers catastrophic illness or injury in the child birthing process or is incapacitated by a catastrophic medical condition following the delivery, the condition may meet the state’s catastrophic illness or injury definition. For this reason, it is critical in the donated leave request application and in your co-worker’s absence leave request (i.e., for FMLA, TDL, LOA) that the health care provider includes an adequate description of medical information on the certification paperwork to determine if the reason meets the state regulation’s legal definition.
Q: With the recent school shooting in Santa Clarita, California, one theme that keeps getting repeated is that the victims have drilled and prepared for this kind of situation. Aside from a brief mention in orientation and one HealthStream training there has been no other emergency preparedness training or protocols made known to me in my over five years of employment at UMMC. No drills of any kind in five years that I am aware of have been completed for fire, weather, active shooter or any other kind of emergency situation. I know that the campus police drill frequently to deal with emergency situations. The ratio of employees, students, patients and visitors to campus police personnel is so large, how is UMMC training our staff and campus to respond in these situations? Without practice, people cannot always be relied upon to act rationally in an emergency situation.
A: You are correct that our campus police force is well-trained and regularly participates in training exercises to deal with external threats. In addition to what’s presented at new employee orientation and via annual Healthstream education, employee resources for emergencies can be found anytime via the UMMC Intranet by clicking on the Emergency tab at the top right of home page. Drills for employees related to emergency response are performed monthly by Environmental Health & Safety and the Center for Emergency Services on units across the health care system. Live education sessions are available for any unit or department wishing to learn more about emergency response at UMMC. For more information, please contact Manager of Emergency Services Jason Smith (jasmith2@umc.edu).
Q: I am writing in regards to the shuttle bus line. I work in the Pavilion and ride the Red Line bus. There have always been three buses that run around every 15 minutes. Recently they have reduced the Red Line to only two buses and a lot of times when it makes it to your stop they are full. You see them running very close together on the route in the app where you can track them. I have to be at work at 8 a.m. I have arrived at 7:10 a.m. and missed the bus by seconds then the next bus came at 7:45 a.m. There is no way to make it to the Pavilion on a rainy morning in a timely fashion. Please help if you can; we really need three buses on the Red Line in the morning.
A: I see that you submitted your comment on an unusually rainy morning in late October. On rainy days, the number of passengers increases and because of the unloading and loading process of a full bus the route does take longer to complete. The bus drivers prioritize safety in the rain and they will drive slower through the parking lots to ensure employee safety and wait a little longer to pick up employees who may be coming from their vehicles in the rain. Drivers are instructed to maintain bus separation during peak times in the mornings and afternoons. On the morning in question our transportation folks report that the Red Line buses did not have to turn anyone away due to being overloaded but they were running closer in proximity to each other as a result of the conditions. We did recently remove one red line bus due to our cost savings effort. The number of blue, green and gold line buses remains the same. We will continue to monitor ridership on all our bus routes and make adjustments when warranted.
Q: Why is the workplace violence policy limited to the clinical areas? Shouldn't the policy include all areas of the Medical Center?
A: The workplace violence initiative, which I wrote about in my Nov. 8 VC Notes, is not limited to the clinical areas. Its components, which include messaging directed at patients and visitors as well as staff training, will be rolled out first in the clinical areas because that is by far where the majority of the incidents are occurring. This rollout will be a process that will take some time to complete. Regardless, as I said two weeks ago, there is a zero tolerance policy for workplace violence and the behaviors that lead to it, and for all practical purposes that policy is in effect throughout UMMC.
Again, thank you for all of your questions and comments. Your views are important and VC Notes is one of a number of ways I receive your feedback and suggestions. They are a critical part of keeping me informed, as we continue on our path toward A Healthier Mississippi.