Five Questions

Good morning!

It’s the last Friday of the month, so today I’ll respond to some of the questions you’ve sent in over the past couple of months.

Before I get to that though, I want to clear up any confusion about our COVID-19 Vaccination Policy following media reports of the IHL vote to bar any IHL-member institution from enacting a vaccination mandate. UMMC is considered an IHL-member institution but is exempt from this new policy.

During a meeting of the IHL Board of Trustees last week, a vote was passed that prohibits Mississippi’s public universities from adding full vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of employment or enrollment, except in clinical settings. Obviously, that last part is key and pertains to us and that was made clear this week as media updated earlier stories to clarify the new policy did not apply to us. Whether you work with patients on a daily basis, or not, each of you is either an employee of a medical center or a health science student and in one way or another tied to clinical care. As such, it was safest for us to enact policy that applies to everyone and not just those who are daily in areas where patients are present.

A vaccination policy that applies to all employees of a hospital regardless of role is not unique to us. The parent companies of St. Dominic’s and Baptist Medical Center enacted vaccination policies similar to ours.

The decision to make our vaccination policy apply to everyone who works or learns in a UMMC facility was validated recently when the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services announced that all employees of any health care organization that accepts payments through either of those insurance payments will be mandated to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 – save for certain granted accommodations. More details about this announcement are expected to be shared by CMS later this month.

Now on to your questions.

Just as a reminder, I read all of your questions and comments and enjoy hearing from you. I’m not able to respond to them all in this space, but I pass the rest along to senior administrators for their review and possible action. 

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Q:  Can we please have access to water fountains again? In some ambulatory settings, not having access to drinking water (or having to obtain a cup of drinking water from bathroom sinks) is less than ideal.

A:  Our Infection Control team isn’t in favor of opening those water fountains quite yet and it’s likely some won’t open until we are able to convert them to bottle filling stations. This is a much safer way to make water available for public use. Also, for how long the lines that feed the water fountains have been inactive, they’ll need to be heavily flushed and inspected frequently. 

Our facilities and administrative services teams will continue to meet with IC and our water management contractor to develop a plan to again provide these water stations in the safest way possible for our patients, visitors and each of you.

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Q: I know there is a lot of controversy about Medicaid expansion out there right now. Would Medicaid expansion help the bottom line for UMMC?

A: There is a lot of disagreement on this topic.

I believe that all Mississippians deserve access to basic health care. Across the country, states have considered and implemented different programs intended to increase insurance coverage for their citizens. Our state leaders will need to consider such measures and what might be the best fit for our state.

Our own financial analysis shows that increasing the number of Mississippians who have health care insurance would be a net increase to our bottom line. There are many variables, such as the kind of program adopted and how many patients are covered, but based on our best assumptions, we would see a positive financial impact at UMMC. Not captured in the analysis are other cost-saving scenarios such as a patient avoiding a costly ICU stay, for example, because their diabetes was controlled through preventive medicine rather than letting symptoms go and ending up in the Emergency Department in diabetic ketoacidosis. And perhaps that patient is able to reduce days missed at work because they are in better health.

So, while it’s complicated to say what covering the uninsured would mean financially with exact precision, we know that increasing access to primary care and preventive services will mean better health for all Mississippians.

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Q:  Is there a hospital policy that addresses whether department managers are allowed to accept gifts from their employees? Other coworkers have told me they are buying gifts for our manager for multiple holidays and occasions, and I'm starting to feel obligated to participate. This seems unprofessional, not to mention inappropriate within the workplace. I'm curious whether this goes against any hospital rules.

A:  I already knew the answer to this but checked with Molly Brasfield, chief human resources officer, and Stacy Baldwin, executive director of compliance, to be sure and they confirmed my understanding. No, there is no institutional policy that prohibits employees giving gifts to their manager or up-line supervisor – nor is it prohibited for managers to give gifts to employees. Molly also checked with the Mississippi Ethics Commission and found nothing.

However, if there is preferential treatment given to an employee by a supervisor as a result of gifts received – or, that is the perception – then that would not be appropriate. Essentially, any transaction between employee and manager should in no way influence that manager’s decision-making. If you believe anything like this is going on, please reach out to the HR Business Partner for your area.

Also, a no-no is any instance where an employee is made to feel obligated – usually by coworkers – to participate in a group gift for a manager or when a unit supervisor “encourages” their reports to make any financial contribution to something not related to work. (The most frequent example of this is school fundraising sales.) These activities should totally be seen and presented as voluntary.

As long as any of the types of activities mentioned above are voluntary and no one feels pressured to participate, then they would not run afoul of any policy or expectation of ethical behavior. And actually, actions that are intended to improve relationships and/or build a cohesive team are positive and encouraged – as long as they are presented/conducted appropriately.

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Q:  Any chance that the Student Union cafe will ever start offering hot breakfast again? The grab and go stuff and muffins are okay, but I miss being able to get eggs or grits in the morning.

A:  Tracy Moore is the contract employee who is the new director of food services at UMMC. She gave me an update on the status of the café in the Student Union.

Maintaining full staffing continues to be a problem for our contract vendor that manages and supplies staff who work in each of the food operations at UMMC. This has been an ongoing issue since the start of the pandemic and is one of the reasons that location has not returned to pre-COVID operations. Also, they find that traffic in the Student Union is still way down from what is normal.

As they are able to stabilize staffing, they will reintroduce some previously available items to see what will work. Coming in the next couple of weeks, Tracy expects to add some hot breakfast items (probably boiled eggs and grits) to the menu in the next week or so and see how it goes.

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Q:  I would like to know if bus drivers here at the UMMC are required to be vaccinated to drive UMMC employees.

A:  The quick answer here is, yes, the contract employees who drive our shuttles will need to be compliant with our COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. Phase III of our vaccination policy includes the following: “All students and other individuals accessing UMMC’s premises in a non-visitor/patient role must show proof of full vaccination on or before Nov. 1, 2021.” The “other individuals” here include contract employees whose job requires them to regularly be in a UMMC facility – and in this case, that “facility” includes the shuttles used daily by hundreds of UMMC employees and students.

Each vendor with contract employees at UMMC is responsible for making sure all their employees comply with the policy by the Phase III deadline stated above. This same process is used for contract employees who must comply with our annual flu vaccination policy. 

As always, I appreciate all of the questions, comments and yes, even the criticisms, you send in to the VC Notes inbox. Keep ‘em coming. 

Before wrapping today, I want to extend my appreciation to Entergy Mississippi for their generosity in making available free meals and other food and drink options to UMMC employees this past Wednesday. In total, Entergy donated around $20,000 worth of food for our health care heroes just to show their appreciation for your efforts over the past year-plus.