New Health Care Horizons

Good morning!

Last week I wrote about the vision for education and research at UMMC over the next five to 10 years. The goals outlined in the previous column reflect thoughtful planning to position the Medical Center for future growth and success to support our mission.

Today’s focus is on the future of our hospitals, clinics and health system. I believe health care has a bright future even if national headlines paint a bleak picture. Becker’s Hospital Review, a leading national health care magazine, and its many affiliated newsletters often highlight the challenges hospitals and health systems face. For those of you who subscribe, you know Becker’s reports are frequent and full of less-than-encouraging news.

While the acute phase of the pandemic is in the rearview mirror, hospitals and health systems are very much feeling continued pressures related to pricing and availability of supplies, including increased labor costs, continued shortages of critical staff positions, ongoing burn out and weariness of all those who have stayed the course, and in some instances, the slow return of patients to health care. The reality in health care at this time is that we are all uneasy and uncertain.

However, when I speak with my colleagues all around the country, I am encouraged. Despite the impact of all the challenges noted above, we have positive momentum.

Efforts toward clinical quality will only continue to advance and become more sophisticated. We will focus on improving publicly reported scores such as Leapfrog and the CMS star ratings. We will continue to push important efforts around maximizing value in quality, length of stay, and cost of care. Access to our clinics and physicians will receive intense attention, and in the ambulatory setting we WILL improve access, efficiency, and utilization with a goal of a top-rated experience for our patients, our staff and physicians, and referring physicians. Telehealth will be an ever more important modality for providing care especially with an increased emphasis on mental health.

As it pertains to clinical facilities and the UMMC footprint, key initiatives to be accomplished in the next five to 10 years include:

• Establishing an adolescent psychiatric unit
• Opening UMMC Colony Park, an ambulatory surgery center and medical office building in Ridgeland
• Having fully operational main campus hospitals, which means the build out of shelled space in the critical care hospital and adult towers
• Planning and building a comprehensive research cancer center
• Replacing the Pavilion facility
• Modernizing our adult operating rooms

From a community and affiliations perspective, we will continue to nurture and develop our partnerships with Mississippi hospitals. We will accomplish this by working closely to advance shared goals with other Mississippi-owned health systems who share both similar challenges and a similar vision for health care in our state.

The key health care relationship for patients is the one they have with their doctor. Recognizing this most important foundational element, we will work with physician groups to provide support in a variety of ways. We will especially focus on deepening our ongoing work with sister academic medical centers Mayo Clinic and Vanderbilt. And you can expect the reach of Children’s of Mississippi to continue to expand as we all understand our healthier future begins with the health of our children today.

Lastly, I want to emphasize the importance of collaboration with our state and governmental partners. The Mississippi Department of Health and the Division of Medicaid are key working relationships as we are all trying to tackle some of the same health care challenges in the state. The Medical Center has strong support from our legislature. We could not do what we do without them.

Despite the national headlines or highlights in Becker’s, we will continue to remain true to our mission while maintaining a positive outlook. We teach, we discover, and we take care of patients – all with the arrow pointing toward A Healthier Mississippi.