Internal processes progress, despite pandemic

While in a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the Council of Chairs, I began getting messages about the events unfolding at the nation’s capitol. Like all of you, I am deeply disturbed and saddened by what I saw.

A dear colleague and friend reminded me this morning that most of the world is sane and rational and that I should not allow the actions of a few hundred people on Wednesday evening to cause us to lose faith in the American people. I pray we can come together as a people and as a country and that we are all willing to dialogue with and listen to each other with open hearts and minds.

Let's build America up, not tear her down.

Now, on to today’s topic.

During the last year, we’ve heard a lot about COVID-19. It has taken center stage, causing many other initiatives to seem less critical.

We did, however, have notable non-COVID-19 public successes. One that brought welcome joy was the opening of the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi. We’ve also heralded other projects, such as the opening of the Mississippi Center for Emergency Services headquarters and the launching of a new Interventional Radiology Suite.

Even in a year when we are NOT navigating a pandemic, work on internal processes is less talked about in venues such as this weekly column. Let me say clearly: while they may be less talked about, they are just as significant.

In the last 36 months or so, there has been tremendous improvement in the areas of IT, clinical quality, patient access, revenue cycle, supply chain, finance and budgeting, compliance, and many others. In some, initiatives have been in the works for several years. Continuous efforts to improve the functionality of these areas are very important in making our work life better, making our patients’ experiences better and making the organization’s overall operational health better.

Here's just a few of the behind-the-scenes changes that have resulted in dramatic improvements:

• It was 10 years ago that we implemented Lawson enterprise-wide. In June 2019, the Medical Center’s use of Workday to manage what Lawson previously did and MORE went into effect. Full implementation of Workday should be completed later this year. Workday has transformed the way UMMC faculty, staff and students interact with systems for HR, payroll, finance, supply chain and student information.
  
  
• In June 2012, we went live with Epic. At the time, it was the biggest “big bang” Epic had ever achieved. That was followed in 2018 by a major Epic upgrade.
  
  
• Michael Henderson joined UMMC in 2015 as chief medical officer, leading us on our true quality journey. Although this appointment took place several years ago, our commitment to clinical quality is so active that at times, it can feel new. I want this. It’s important that we never feel like we’ve “taken care of that” and stop working to improve daily.
  
  
• We established the Mississippi Critical Care Organization to oversee and coordinate all of the Medical Center’s critical care units and to break down silos that sometimes exist between units. During this pandemic, information and resources developed by MiCCO have served as a resource for health care professionals statewide.
  
  
• The Division of Information Systems quietly deployed a new software-based Voice Over Internet Protocol phone system. VoIP has greatly increased efficiency and productivity, vastly improved the reliability of UMMC’s communication system and significantly lowered costs.
  
  
• Shannon Pittman, professor and Alma Lowry Hill Chair of Family Medicine, was named chief medical information officer in 2019, joining Henderson in the effort to enhance quality of care at UMMC. She's continuing the integral effort she has made to adopt, assimilate and enhance Epic and MyChart throughout her tenure at UMMC.
  
  
• Mississippi's COVID-19 system of care, implemented and directed by the Mississippi State Department of Health, has impacted the placement of COVID-19 patients requiring varying levels of care statewide. The creativity and flexibility needed to make UMMC's role successful comes from collaboration between patient placement, MED-COM and physician leaders who handle patient transfers. Capacity challenges are nothing new, but the work that had been done by these groups before COVID-19 arrived put UMMC in a better position to adapt to patient placement needs during the pandemic.
  
  
• UMMC employees, their immediate dependents and UMMC students are receiving same-day or next-day appointments for minor illnesses at the Department of Family Medicine’s Quick Care Clinic in the Lakeland Medical Building.
  
  And the successful Employee Rapid Access Program has continued functioning throughout the pandemic, although staff and provider shortages can present challenges.
  
  The Department of Neurology is piloting a rapid access program for employees and their dependents. When a scheduler receives a request for a UMMC employee, his or her chart is sent to a neurologist for review. Then, the appropriate subspecialist is selected to see the patient. Even though the pilot is in its early stages, Neurology has been able to get everyone scheduled within seven days.

• A number of UMMC departments – including ENT and Internal Medicine – are offering same-day or next-day appointments to any patients, while other departments are moving toward substantially shorter wait times. Along with our commitment to clinical quality, improving patient access is at the top of our priority list. That’s an important principle to teach our learners.
  
  The increased use and availability of telehealth as a result of in-person care restrictions brought by the pandemic has significantly made improved accessibility possible.

• Strides have been made to improve accessibility for our referring providers. It’s important that our providers can easily and quickly seek our assistance or consultation and have a smooth path for sending us patients who need specialized care. In some cases, UMMC providers have made their personal cell phone numbers available to outside providers to solidify this relationship.
  
  
• Medical Center leadership modified our capital planning and budget processes to be more inclusive and transparent in FY 21. This decision was born out of the need for more shared decision making.
  
  
• The new Office of Policy, established last year, has already had an enormously positive impact in keeping some of the Medical Center’s most important documents accessible and in reducing redundancies.

I’ve said in this space before that the pandemic will be with us for months, and likely, the worst is yet to come. Even so, some things don’t change, among them our role as the state’s safety net hospital for the sickest of the sick. Many teams perform critical behind-the-scenes functions to ensure we can continue to provide patient-centered care and make steady improvements to our academic, research and health care mission areas.

Just when I think I couldn’t be more proud of UMMC, the Medical Center family proves me wrong. You are the reason why, even in a pandemic, we are continuing to do the sometimes simple, often complex work that makes for A Healthier Mississippi.