Ready When Called

Good morning!

Kids (and health science students) are back in school, which for all intents and purposes marks the end of summer. I hope each of you had a chance to get away for some fun and/or relaxation some time over the past few months. While the fiscal year is almost two months old, the ramp up of academics-related activities is really when the engine is running full steam. With the annual dramatic increase of items on the personal and work schedule, it’s good that we support each other and give each other a little bit of grace, when needed. Stressors are coming from many directions during this time of year, and it takes a little time to settle in. I know all of you already help each other out in so many ways (and maybe a key reason we are so often voted a “Best Place to Work”) but it’s always worth mentioning. Thank you for all that you do for this Medical Center, all Mississippians and your colleagues.

Now, on to today’s topic.

Early in our operational response to COVID-19, your actions prompted a new phrase, “When others are asked to step back, we step up.” That saying couldn’t be truer, and really applies daily. All the time, not just when the entire world is grappling with a deadly pandemic, you show up in big and small ways. Being there when needed is what should be expected of an academic medical center. And since we are the only one in Mississippi, we have an entire state to support – and I’m so very proud that we do that regularly.

One example of this occurred this week.

On Tuesday morning, Mississippi MED-COM, the statewide communications hub for medical response and part of our Mississippi Center for Emergency Services, received a call from Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Because of a sewage line problem, they were forced to take steps to “close the hospital.” Immediately, MED-COM and MCES personnel knew this was a serious situation. Closing a hospital the size of GLH is no small task. All of their inpatients – an estimated 25 patients at the time - had to be either discharged or relocated to another hospital, including those in the ICU.

For most of that day, the stellar MCES team did everything they could to relocate patients who GLH wasn’t able to discharge or easily move to a local hospital. I commend and appreciate their efforts. We often speak about things that only we do in Mississippi, and this is one. No other institution in the state is positioned, staffed and, most importantly, EAGER to provide broad assistance in a situation like this.

As is usually the case in times when a patient needs to transfer to a different hospital for one reason or another, the biggest difficulty is actually finding a hospital willing to accept the transfer. You’d be surprised how often MED-COM struggles to find a hospital that will accept a patient transfer. With so many patients who needed to be moved quickly, finding rooms was no easy task. Luckily, though, there was one hospital that quickly offered enormous support: UMMC Grenada.

Dodie McElmurray, CEO of UMMC’s community hospitals in Grenada and Holmes County, and her clinical leadership team didn’t hesitate to offer to accept the majority of the patients who needed to be moved to another hospital. And to their credit, they took a “no questions asked” approach and offered to take any patient they could. In this case, that included nearly all of GLH’s ICU patients. With the help of Med-Stat, their local EMS provider, 10 patients were transported to UMMC Grenada.

Thanks to Dodie and the UMMC Grenada medical staff for representing what it means to “step up” when Mississippians need our help.

“The state’s only academic medical center” cannot be overused when referring to UMMC because it’s so very important to who we are and why we do what we do. Everything we do, from education programs, to clinical studies to identifying and establishing needed clinical services, is done for one primary reason – the health and well-being of Mississippians and others who seek our care or benefit from our efforts. In this case, these were GLH patients, but we absolutely put effort into their care like they were already in a UMMC gown. This is what you do every day. The impact of an academic medical center is felt because of you, the people who choose to work here. It’s your dedication and thoughtful work – and commitment to a #UMMCStrong mentality – that instills a confidence that we are moving toward A Healthier Mississippi.