A Tough but Successful Stretch

Good morning!

Last week, Sen. Roger Wicker and FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr visited our Center for Telehealth offices in Ridgeland. While there, new Chief Telehealth Officer Dr. Saurabh Chandra and I joined with the senator and commissioner to speak to the media about a couple of grants the FCC awarded to UMMC in 2020 to help implement and expand telehealth services in response to demands and needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, they shared how impressed they are with the successes realized through the Center’s remote patient monitoring initiatives. We appreciate Sen. Wicker and Commissioner Carr’s continued support, and for their very much deserved “shout out” to the stellar work of our telehealth teams.

I had prepared some remarks, but when it was my time to speak, the thought of what really was at the heart of why we were there – responding to a devastating health crisis – hit me, and I had to recognize it. “Last year was really horrible,” I said. It doesn’t get any simpler or more accurate than that. Then I shared how even through a pandemic, silver linings emerged and some great things – like how the use of telehealth helped keep people safe and healthy – were accomplished. We should all be proud of the many positive things that have been accomplished in spite of adversity.

And that’s what I’d like to take the opportunity to do today. I’d like for you to see in black and white the many fruits of your labor during the last 18-plus months. A LOT has been done and it is all a true testament to what a great People of the U team we have. 

The list of accomplishments below was compiled last month for a different purpose, but it’s important that you have a chance to see what has been done here since July 2019. This list covers all of Fiscal Year 2020 (from July 2019-July 2020) and half of Fiscal Year 2021 (from July-December 2020). In some instances, data extending into 2021 were used. Certainly, not everything that happened at the Medical Center during that time is on this list, but there’s enough here to gain an understanding of the good things that are happening or are in the works all the time at UMMC (even while shouldering the unexpected responsibilities and challenges that the pandemic presented).

• Supply Chain Chief
• Chief Medical Information Officer
• Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
• CEO of Community Hospitals (Grenada and Holmes County)
• CEO of Adult Hospitals
• Chief Perioperative Services Physician
• Interim Dean, John D. Bower School of Population Health
• Chief Human Resources Officer
• Associate VC for Clinical Affairs
• Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine
• Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
• Chair, Department of Neurology
• Executive Director, External Affairs
• Executive Director, Development
• Executive Director, Communications and Marketing
• Director, Office of Policy
• Interim Chair, Department of Radiology
• Executive Medical Director, Mississippi Critical Care Organization
• Interim Chief Nursing Executive Officer
• Dean, School of Dentistry
• Chief Telehealth Officer
• Associate Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Operations
• Associate Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of Care Coordination
• Medical Chief of Staff

— — —

COVID-19-Related Initiatives (Data as of Dec. 30, 2020, unless noted otherwise):

• Operationalized a COVID-19 response team to lead pandemic-related efforts across the organization:
  • Incident Commander – Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs
  • Incident Manager – Dr. Jonathan Wilson, chief administrative officer
  • Clinical Response Leader – Dr. Alan Jones, assistant vice chancellor for clinical affairs
  • Infection Prevention and Control Leaders - Dr. Bhagyashri Navalkele, medical director of infection prevention and control, and Dr. Jason Parham, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases
  • Many members of UMMC’s Disaster Response Team
• Communication to internal constituencies and the general public:
  • Operations-update memos sent to all UMMC personnel: 136
  • In-person and livestream press conferences: 14
  • Local, national and international media interviews and live shots conducted by COVID-19 response team leadership: 120 (estimate)
  • Intranet and public-facing web pages updated several times daily
  • Livestreamed town hall meetings: 7
• Established state’s first mass drive-through testing site at Mississippi State Fairgrounds
  • In collaboration with the Mississippi State Department of Health and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency
  • Later moved to Farmer’s Market on West Street with Mississippi National Guard provided staffing assistance
• Developed and implemented in-house, lab-based testing procedure in record time: 222,571 lab-run tests as of April 7, 2021
  • Capacity improvements through 2020 saw the lab go from running 270 tests per day to 2,500 per day
• Quickly developed vaccine and treatment clinical trials for enrollment: 26 trials active or completed
• Initiated new protocols to help manage a worldwide shortage of medical personal protection equipment
• Increased the use and scope of telehealth
  • Proved important for patient and provider safety and to keep the clinical enterprise from experiencing a “full stop”
  • Completed telehealth appointments:
    • FY19 – 10,897
    • FY20 – 78,014
    • Mid-year FY21 – 60,377
  • Received a $2 million FCC grant to develop a COVID-19 triage solution and to aid in the rapid expansion of non-pandemic telehealth services
  • Installed 112 hospital- and emergency room-based telehealth cameras
• Converted 197 patient rooms to a negative pressure air management system (from 60 total rooms pre-pandemic to 257)
• Took steps to mitigate the impact high volumes of patients with COVID-19 had on already frequently at-capacity hospital units, especially those outfitted to provide critical care
  • Created COVID-19-patient cohort system to limit exposure and to make best use of resources
  • Developed and initiated alternate models of patient triage and treatment
• In collaboration with the Mississippi State Department of Health, developed and continued to host an online screening and scheduling tool for testing at all state-run sites
  • Later used this tool as the backbone to develop a similar system to screen and schedule for vaccine distribution (the tool was so successful that it was licensed for use by the state of South Carolina)
  • Total page views as of March 1, 2021: Testing site – 481,013; Vaccine site – 62,890,288
• Operationalized an on-campus testing site for UMMC employees and students
• Operationalized an on-campus vaccination clinic for UMMC employees and students
• Developed and implemented many COVID-19-related clinical policies and procedures and made them available to the statewide medical community
• Assisted the Mississippi State Department of Health with several initiatives where the capabilities, expertise and resources of the state’s only academic medical center were essential to coordination and implementation
• Developed new and increased existing mental health and therapy resources available to UMMC employees and students
• Developed employee and student protocols for screening, testing, reporting and returning to work
• Provided all employees with up to 40 hours of paid administrative leave to accommodate work disruptions brought on by the effects of COVID-19
• Managed a near-complete shutdown of non-urgent clinical care
• Developed an interprofessional Disaster Management Course for students to earn academic credit for experiences earned related to the pandemic
  • 3,224 student volunteer hours were logged under the program
• Provided a series of COVID-19 online enrichment and learning presentations offered free to any health care professional
• Created and validated a testing kit in response to a national supply chain shortage
  • Students from several degree programs volunteered to assemble more than 10,000 test kits

Organizational Achievements:

• Continued the transition to Workday personnel and business management system
  • Multi-year process began in 2018 and is planned to be completed by the end of 2021
• UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute was listed in the top 10 percent of cancer care providers by U.S. News and World Report
• Unveiled newly designed and streamlined Intranet
  • The new design, now visible to all employees, highlights and increases awareness of clinical quality efforts
• Developed and implemented a workplace violence initiative
• The UMMC chapter of the Group on Women in Medicine and Science received the Leadership Award for an Organization (Emerging Leader) from the Association of American Medical Centers
• Commissioned an economic impact study
• Developed a new five-year Strategic Plan
• AirCare received an Airbus VisionZero Aviation Safety Award for a capstone project on compassion fatigue submitted by a team member
• AirCare entered into a new aviation management agreement with Med-Trans
• Established an Office of Policy to serve as the final authority on internal policy creation and management

— — —

Health System Achievements:

• Received accreditation from the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission for the quality of our telehealth patient care
• Made significant improvements in clinical quality scores according to nationally recognized benchmark rankings
  • Rose to earning just below a two-star rating (out of five) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
    • 0.07 points below -0.87 score needed for the two-star rating
    • A significant increase compared to the previous year
  • Moved into the upper portion of the Leapfrog Quality Group’s C-grade category
    • 0.1856 points below the three points needed for a B grade
    • Made a significant improvement from the F rating of 2015
  • Clinical Quality continues to be a top-level institutional strategic goal
• Named a national Huntington's Disease Society of America Center of Excellence, a new designation
• Opened an outpatient cancer care and infusion clinic at UMMC Grenada
• Designated as a “Top Performer” in LGBT Healthcare Inclusion by the Human Rights Campaign (the fourth time to receive this distinction)
• Ranked as “High Performing in Adult Cancer” in the U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Hospitals” list, putting the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute among the top 10 percent of cancer centers nationally
• Established a Division of Medical Genetics and Precision Medicine in the Department of Medicine
• Began seeing patients in a new primary care clinic for LGBTQ patients named TEAM (Trustworthy, Evidence-based, Affirming and Multidisciplinary)
• Provided free dental care and general health checks to about 350 children from Jackson Public Schools and nearly 1,000 adults from across the state, including many military veterans, during the School of Dentistry’s annual Dental Mission Week
• Completed the buildout of the Healthy Planet population health module in Epic
  • Aimed at promoting and removing barriers to health behaviors
• Saw growth in UMMC’s Specialty Pharmacy Program, which assists patients with complex conditions
  • Registered more than a $10 million profit margin and 769 patients as of Dec. 30, 2020
• Maintained a Primary Stroke Center designation from the Joint Commission
• Maintained 93 active ambulatory clinics statewide in 36 locations

— — — 

Clinical Affiliations:

• Entered into a joint venture with Merit Health for shared ownership of the Merit Health Madison hospital
• Entered into an affiliation agreement with Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb
• Through an existing affiliation agreement, University Heart specialists began seeing patients at Oktibbeha County Hospital in Starkville – establishing OCH’s first cardiology clinic
• Initiated an agreement with Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville to manage and provide specialists for its NICU and inpatient pediatric services
• Entered into an affiliation agreement with Gulfport Memorial Hospital for pediatric and neonatal health care services
• Maintained eight active clinical affiliations
  • Anderson Regional Medical Center; Gulfport Memorial Hospital; Affinity Medical Group/Vantage Health; North Mississippi Medical Center; Oktibbeha County Hospital; Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center; Hattiesburg Clinic; Methodist Rehabilitation Center

— — —

Educational Achievements:

• Record enrollment in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing accelerated program: 130
  • 70 in Jackson; 60 in Oxford
• Received a record number of applications for the 2021 cycle in all health professional schools
• The School of Medicine received an extension of full accreditation for another eight years from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education
• Dr. LouAnn Woodward was named to a multiyear Board of Directors position for the Association of American Medical Colleges
• Welcomed a record 18 first-year students in the John D. Bower School of Population Health’s Fall 2020 class
• Transitioned the Student and Employee Health Program and Clinic into the Department of Preventive Medicine
• In response to the pandemic, the Office of eCampus assisted faculty in quickly moving academic programs from traditional models to online delivery formats
• The School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences began enrollment for its PhD in Biomedical Sciences Bioimaging Track
• The National Institutes of Health Review Committee awarded two UMMC training programs with a rare “Perfect 10” score:
  • The Cardiovascular-Renal Research Center’s Hypertension and Cardiorenal Diseases Research Training Program
  • The Mississippi Diversity in Hypertension and Cardiorenal Research Program
• Maintained high student achievement metrics (data for academic year ‘20-‘21):
  • Undergraduate graduation rate—92 percent
  • One-year retention rate—94.5 percent
  • Number of degrees/certificates awarded—912
  • Licensure rate—95 percent
• Streamlined and transferred online a portion of resuscitation training resources used by health system nurse educators
• Received re-accreditation (2019-22) by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
• Maintained full accreditation and good standing for all degree-seeking programs - All residency and fellowship programs hold either full or initial accreditation
• The Mississippi Center of Excellence, housed in the School of Nursing, was selected as an affiliate of Cochrane, one of only 14 in the U.S. and only the second nursing school to receive the distinction
• The Office of Continuing Health Professional Education launched CE Central, a software-based solution to streamline the continuing education application, testing and reporting process
• Hosted a statewide accreditation symposium with the Mississippi Association for Institutional Research
  • More than 80 attendees represented 16 institutions from Mississippi and four other states
• Began transitioning student information, including academic-related data, management and monitoring of student progression, course registration, and transcripts to Workday Student
• Hosted (some virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions) successful programmatic accreditation site visits for the following programs: Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics and Information Management; Bachelor of Science in Histotechnology; Master of Science in Nuclear Medicine Technology; Doctor of Occupational Therapy; and Doctor of Medicine

— — —

Financial Sustainability:

• FY20
  • As of February 2020, were on track to achieve FY20 year-end goal of $29 million
  • Ended FY20 with an operating loss of $27.1 million
• FY21
  • Project to end FY21 with a $41.4 million surplus, despite navigating through a public health crisis (COVID-19 pandemic) that was a major driver of an estimated $110 million loss of clinical revenue
  • Significantly above days cash on hand budgeted amount mid-way through FY21:
    • Actual – 82.97; Budgeted – 67.74
• Managed a significant negative economic impact as a result of a near-complete stoppage of clinical enterprise
  • Multiple steps were initiated to make up for a projected $100 million overall loss (reduction in force, eliminating institution-funded travel, introducing policies and procedures to limit staff growth, temporary pay reduction for some employees)
• Developed and implemented a Remote Work Policy to respond to a safety-based need for employees not providing direct patient care or in critical support roles to work from home, whenever possible

— — —

Research Achievements:

• FY20: Most grants and awards ever (347) and second-highest funding level ($82.3M)
  • FY21 mid-year: More than $65M in funding and 181 awards
• Saw 35 percent growth in clinical research studies
  • 74 in FY19; 100 in FY20; 57 new studies activated by mid-year FY21
• UMMC researchers authored more than 1,000 peer-reviewed papers in FY20
  • Less than 800 occur in most years
• Experienced record success in intellectual property submissions
  • FY20: 17 invention disclosures, 17 patent applications, one U.S. patent issued, two European patents allowed, two trademarks allowed
• Moved up to 348 – a jump of 36 spots – in the 2020 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities
• Facilitated the design and development of an emergency-use ventilator made from common household items found at most home-improvement stores
  • Although never used on a patient, the ventilator was validated and later received emergency-use approval from the FDA
• The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study was renewed for its ninth year, providing four new visits of the ARIC cohort
• Ranked highly in several Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research Categories among organizations that conduct NIH-funded medical research:
  • Of all institutions, UMMC is No. 202, in the top 8 percent
  • Of Schools of Medicine, the UMMC Department of Physiology is No. 9, in the top 15 percent

— — —

New or Improved Facilities:

• Opened the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower, a $180 million pediatric expansion of the state’s only hospital dedicated to children
• Opened a new 20,000-square-foot home for the Center for Advancement of Youth
• A 22-bed Clinical Research and Trials Unit began operations, making the expansion of UMMC’s clinical trials program possible
• Opened a new Skin Cancer Center Clinic, a collaboration between the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute and the Department of Dermatology
• The Mississippi Center for Emergency Services centralized its operations into a new facility on the east edge of UMMC’s campus
  • Housed in the new building are pediatric and neonatal transport, Mississippi MED-COM, public safety support and AirCare
• Replaced and upgraded emergency generators and HVAC systems for the Adult Surgical Suite
• Renovated space for a new, state-of-the-art Interventional Radiology Suite, providing increased space and rooms for patient care and including new, updated imaging equipment
  
  

I’ve read through this list many times, and every single time I’m nearly floored by it. On balance, what we’ve been able to accomplish over a roughly 18-month stretch is outstanding. And that’s even during a pandemic! Every single one of you should feel proud and a real sense of ownership and accomplishment with this list. You did this! Your fingerprints are all over this! Amazing, amazing work. Thank you. I am excited about our future and the opportunities on the horizon. This list is full of items that prove we are #UMMCStrong and heading in the right direction - toward A Healthier Mississippi.