Five Questions
Good morning!
Last Friday, the final Friday in October, I preempted Five Questions for a different topic I was eager to discuss. So this week, I’ll respond to a selection of questions you’ve sent in during the last month.
Before I do that, I just want to congratulate all the faculty and staff associated with the “go live” at the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower this week. I dropped by early in the week and was inspired by the palpable sense of joy and satisfaction with the new “digs.” Even with all the shuffling and hubbub, it was obvious that our employees always put our patients and families first. Congratulations and thank you for all the hard work by Chris Collado and the whole team devoted to making this a special week!
I receive many questions from you – so many that I’m not able to respond to all of them in this column. I share many of those I do not answer with other administrators for their review and possible action. I enjoy reading your questions and hope you keep sending them.
Q: Why was there not a campuswide notification sent about the shooting incident in Parking Garage B October 21? Employees and students should not have to learn of this news from the news media. We should be notified immediately by email or text notification. What are the protocols for emergency incident notifications on campus? As an academic medical center, we should have an email/text system that notifies employees and students of campus incidents. Communication and transparency is essential in maintaining a positive workplace, and I am extremely disappointed by the way this was handled.
A: I was alarmed and saddened to hear of the shooting incident on our campus just before midnight Wednesday Oct 21. I was relieved that the victim was not hurt more seriously than he was and that he was treated and released in short order. That sort of occurrence reminds me how fortunate we are to have a fully accredited and well-staffed police department. Having officers nearby and constantly patrolling our campus paid dividends that night, because after being alerted, the officers were quickly on the scene to secure the area. In this case, the emergency Alert U notification system, which we use to send text and email messages to anyone who has opted in to the system, was not used because officers had determined the threat to campus personnel was no longer active and no further precautions were needed. Alert U is reserved for emergent situations to communicate potential and/or imminent dangerous situations – like a tornado tracking toward campus or a suspected or known active shooter on campus. In this case, the alleged shooter had left the scene (although he did return later to turn himself in to police). I did, however, speak to our Emergency Services and Communications teams to better understand the procedures regarding communicating about incidents like this to our campus community, even when there is no longer a threat. I agree that in the future, it would be best for UMMC to provide an official “heads up” (likely by email) about such incidents before our employees and students hear or read about it in the news media. Unfortunately, there will be cases where unsubstantiated reports will occur on social media; those outlets often provide incomplete information at a speed no responsible institution can keep up with. We will, however, use the Alert U system to communicate during a true emergency. I encourage you to make sure your cell phone number is entered into Workday under work contact information. If you mark the number as private, it will still be included in the Alert U system but not published in the employee directory.
Q: Now that flu season is upon us, will we take extra precautions with testing? If the ED has the capability to do rapid flu swabs, all adult patients who are short of breath, febrile or altered (intubated, confused, etc.) should be tested for the flu in the ED before they are sent to the floors, especially if it is an ICU patient. The adult ICU tower has semi-private rooms. We should always be concerned about our staff potentially being exposed and taking extra precautions. However, if a patient is admitted to a semi-private room, not only is staff exposed, the other patient in the room and their family are also exposed. This is something we should try to avoid since we have the capability to do so. Is rapid flu testing in the ED on this patient population something that could be made standard practice?
A: You raise some important questions, especially at this time when cases of COVID-19 are spiking and as we begin seeing more patients with the flu. I checked with Dr. Alan Jones, assistant vice chancellor for clinical affairs and clinical response leader for the pandemic. He noted that, essentially, we are recommending simultaneous flu and COVID-19 testing on all patients who present with symptoms. An algorithm (i.e., decision tree) on this topic was published in the Oct. 14 COVID-19 campus memo, which is posted on the UMMC Intranet here.
Q: Will the new Garage C at the Sanderson Tower be available to night/weekend employees that currently park in B and the old C?
A: I spoke with our Facilities Services staff and they have fielded several questions along those lines. The new Garage C adjacent to Children’s of Mississippi is primarily intended for patients, families and visitors using those facilities. (Not everybody may know that we have changed the name of the former Garage C by the School of Dentistry to Garage D, so we could name the Children’s of Mississippi parking deck Garage C, which seemed more appropriate.) We are going to evaluate usage of the new garage in the coming weeks, including at night and on weekends, before making any adjustments related to employee parking. At this point we need the dust to settle – almost literally – before making any commitments. But we will circle back to this question when we have more data.
Q: A few weeks back several beautiful watercolor paintings appeared in the hallway by Employee-Student Health. The signature is hard to read, and there is no identification of the artist. Do you know who painted these as I would like to support the artist? Especially if they are affiliated with UMMC!
A: I have noticed those paintings myself and admired them. And you’re right, the signature is hard to read! Those fanciful representations of Mississippi towns are by Darryl Anderson, an artist based in Hazlehurst. His work also adorns some of the walls of the new Kathy and Joe Sanderson tower at Children’s of Mississippi, and at our request, he painted a beautiful watercolor of the Sanderson Tower that we have reproduced for several purposes, including on a t-shirt. The t-shirt, as well as Children’s of Mississippi facemasks, can be yours for a small donation to the “Growing” capital campaign, which you can learn more about here.
Q: Here at the School of Dentistry we see hundreds of new patients each week, many of whom have never been to this side of UMMC's campus. I understand that there are text messages that go out to assist with locating the building. However, is there a way to allow for the GPS to find the building instead of the address taking them to the front of the hospital?
A: It’s a complicated question with a complicated answer, but here is the fundamental issue. The entire UMMC campus has one physical address, 2500 North State Street. Without giving each building on campus a unique postal address, there isn’t really a way to remedy the situation with some of the search engines on the market. Google Maps and Waze will provide directions to the UMMC School of Dentistry, if you search that term, but that’s a relatively recent development. However, Microsoft’s Bing Maps only directs users to the 2500 N. State St. entrance at University Hospital. Apple Maps doesn’t even recognize the search term. There is a whole universe of issues related to optimizing the appearance of UMMC’s many components in search engine results that I do not pretend to understand but that our Web team is giving increasing attention to as resources allow. But I do know that there’s no easy or inexpensive fix.
Thank you again for all your questions. Please wear masks, practice social distancing, avoid large group activity and wash your hands frequently. Set a good example for others. We will get through this, #UMMCStrong.