Our Own 'Super' Team

Good morning!

Although it was nearly a week ago, I’m still excited that during the Super Bowl, the NFL made a significant effort to recognize and highlight the efforts of the country’s MANY health care workers during this pandemic - even having a Tampa-area ICU nurse manager as one of the game’s honorary captains! (Although it’s debatable whether having a football – or any sport – season at all during a pandemic was prudent.)

These “heroes among us” deserve this level of kudos. The year 2020 was possibly the most difficult in the last century to work in medicine and related fields, and the care and dedication these heroes have shown - sometimes at great personal cost - has been simply inspiring. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers’ defense may have won the big game, but every person who works in a patient-care position or supporting role are also champions and certainly worthy of our praise and appreciation.

Today I want to take the opportunity to bring specific recognition to the supporting roles I mentioned earlier. These aren’t necessarily positions charged with the responsibility of treating or caring for patients, but they are roles in various aspects of the health care continuum that are invaluable and especially integral in one way or another in helping the Medical Center through this pandemic.

The number of employees who deserve to be recognized is in the thousands – many more than could be listed here. The names below represent just a sample of those doing the behind-the-scenes work considered “above and beyond,” which has been, and continues to be, necessary. In some cases, these people have helped keep things flowing where hang-ups could have been costly, and in other instances, they were the first to raise their hands and offer to do what was needed to bring to bear whatever had to be done. To each of you listed here – and the many, many others you represent – thank you!

• Jennifer Philips, lab services manager, and Jake Johnston, molecular pathology specialist, were instrumental in getting our in-house COVID-19 testing procedure up and running.
  
  
• This pandemic was and continues to be a situation that meets every definition of an emergency. Our Mississippi Center for Emergency Services staff stepped up to take care of whatever needed to be done to ensure our Medical Center and health care systems across the state kept operating as efficiently as possible – including initiatives ranging from designing large-scale testing and vaccination models that continue to be in operation to serving as a much-needed coordinator for Mississippi’s system of care protocols connecting all hospitals. When it was time for someone to solve a problem, they did what was needed.
  
  
• The smooth, effective function of the COVID-19 Operations Center in the Health System Suite was in large part due to the volunteer efforts of Amy Appel, risk management coordinator.
  
  
• Carrie Cooper, director of student financial aid, efficiently distributed nearly $500,000 in CARES Act funds to our students.
  
  
• Jason Smith, emergency services manager, was a human Swiss army knife when it came to all COVID-19-related logistics and incident response, both internally and in coordination with external partners.
  
  
• Through the UMMC Reserves, employees like Amani Bailey and Lida Gibson from Academic Affairs played an active role in many pandemic-response projects. Amani and Lida were part of the team that helped keep the volunteer workforce pool running smoothly.
  
  
• The Office of Clinical Trials is only a couple of years old, but when new COVID-19-related programs needed to get up and running quickly – and I mean, really fast – Whitney Bondurant, office director, and Heather Vaughan, research nurse manager, made it happen.
  
  
• SHRP faculty member Dr. Elizabeth Franklin coordinated the team that created a curriculum to help faculty transition to hybrid or online content delivery.
  
  
• When a purchase order needed to get approved quickly, Sam Lewis, department business administrator for MCES, was “Johnny on the spot.”
  
  
• Dr. Shannon Pittman, chair of family medicine and chief medical information officer, headed the development and implementation of Epic solutions and IT components for COVID-19 screening/testing and vaccine distribution.
  
  
• An efficient, smooth-running vaccine distribution effort for employees and, more recently, patients and the public has been due to the diligent and coordinated work of many individuals, including Denise Mitchell and Sandra Provis, ambulatory operations directors, Jennifer Muirhead, ambulatory operations manager, Adam Dungey, Weight Management Services administrator, and Jane Dussouy, special projects director.
  
  
• Brad Somers stepped into the UMMC Pharmacy leadership role just before vaccine distribution was beginning. Talk about walking into the fire when it is hottest!
  
  
• In addition to all we’ve faced within our many UMMC facilities, from the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve also worked closely with the Mississippi State Department of Health and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency on a number of fronts. Terry McLeod, clinical director for emergency services, serves as our main coordinator with those entities and is a tremendous advocate for PPE allocation and distribution.

Thanks to each person listed above and to all “People of the U” who have served in similar critical roles throughout our pandemic response.