Here to Serve and Fill the Void

Good morning.

There has been coverage in the media recently on our newly established Mississippi Burn Center, so I felt it was important to provide our employees information on why we are approaching this critical need in this way. To do this, I’ve asked Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs, to address these questions on the Mississippi Burn Center and our plans for its future.

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UMMC is the natural place for a burn center.

Burns, particularly major burns, are life-altering events. Burn victims – from fire, electrical, water, chemicals, etc. – need a center that will always be available and capable to meet their needs, acute and chronic, and includes the staff, facilities and equipment these types of complex cases require. This is exactly what we are already doing and working to improve and what we’ve talked about publicly since we first announced we would fill the void created when the previous burn center closed.

We are doing this because it is our mission to provide the highest-level health care for all Mississippians, most importantly, those with complex and critical needs. We are doing this because we can provide burn care training to the next generation of physicians, nurses and other providers who will make up Mississippi’s medical workforce. Education is at the heart of all we do and more clinicians across the state with burn care training is good for Mississippi. We are doing this because we, as the only academic medical center in the state, are positioned to study and promote new techniques and technology that could improve how Mississippi burn victims receive care and could significantly improve outcomes. What is discovered here can have a positive impact across the state and beyond. Our three-part mission of health care, research and education works to make us the most advanced medical institution in the state and fosters improvements and effectiveness of each of the parts. This is the core of UMMC.

Some ask, “Why now and not when legislation was passed in 2007?”

Frankly, I can’t speak to why any decision was made by prior leadership, but I can say that we are a different institution than we were 16 years ago. What’s relevant to Mississippians today is that we have a core infrastructure in place now that can support a burn center. We still need to grow but we have more specialists and support staff, larger facilities, more patient care rooms and  a stronger financial position.

Some of the key pieces in place TODAY that improve our position as the right place for a burn center:

• Only Level I trauma center in Mississippi. Already, we care for patients from across the state who are at the highest level of emergency medical need.
  
  
• Physicians representing nearly every specialty – adult and pediatric. Burn care requires lots of specialists to care for the entirety of how a person may be injured. And those burn patients who aren’t young and healthy? They need even more advanced specialty care to manage existing chronic conditions in addition to the actual burn itself.
  
  
• Post-acute care teams. Wound care specialists, therapists (respiratory, physical, speech, occupational), social workers, dieticians, pharmacists, psychologists and others are needed for the long-term effects of even the most minimal burns. We have all of this in close proximity.
  
  
• Centrally located in the state. Location is part of the reason we were established here in the first place. It’s just smart.
  
  
• Mississippi’s only children’s hospital. This means we have facilities dedicated for children – like the only pediatric emergency room – and we have providers representing pediatric specialties that can be found in no other hospital in the state.
  
  
• Longstanding relationships with several regional burn centers. Some burn victims will require a higher level of care that only exists in the Southeast at a handful of burn centers.We provide initial treatment to patients and stabilize them, and if we feel a transfer to another center is necessary, we make it happen. This system isn’t new. Some burn victims were transferred to other centers from the previous burn center since its inception.
  
  
• The Mississippi Center for Emergency Services, which includes MED-COM, which facilitates the transfer of patients from across the state to UMMC as well as between other hospitals, and AirCare, the only statewide medical transport program.MCES is also the home to initiatives related to our ESF8 designation partnership with the Mississippi State Department of Health, which indicates we are the statewide health care leaders in emergencies and/or disasters and the coordination network for pre-hospital groups like ambulance services and police and fire departments.

Two of the items listed above can be blended to make the case even stronger that we are the ideal location for the state’s burn center: We are the highest-level trauma center in Mississippi and we are located in Jackson, near the middle of the state and at the crossroads of two interstates.

Being a Level I trauma center, as designated by MSDH, indicates we have available physicians and care teams 24/7 to care for the highest acuity patients at a moment’s notice and the facilities and capabilities available for whatever complex emergency care is needed. It makes sense that a burn center be housed at a hospital like ours that is always ready and staffed for whatever injuries a burn victim may have. Mississippi’s previous burn center was located at Merit Health in Jackson, which operates as a trauma center. Currently, UMMC is the only other hospital in Jackson that actively serves as an MSDH-designated trauma center. Again, this makes the case stronger for a state-supported burn unit to be here. We are ready to do this.

 When we asked for and received authorization from the IHL Board to establish the Mississippi Burn Center, we knew the job wasn’t done and we’ve tried to make that clear. We still have work to do to develop the kind of program that we believe Mississippians need and deserve. We are doing this in a methodical and safe way to ensure all is done right and we are able to provide the highest-level burn care possible. As is typical of any academic institution, we are going about this in a deliberate way and relying on data and quality measures from the outset. Our one-time request from the Mississippi State Legislature for $4 million is to help get us to where we believe we need to be sooner but we are already working toward building the center this state needs. 

So far, the start has been excellent. Under the direction of plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Arnold, who has extensive burn experience and training, many Mississippi burn victims have been able to receive care that would have required immediate transfer out of state had we not ramped up our capabilities last October and furthered that commitment with the establishment of the Mississippi Burn Center. We look forward to building on these early successes. We are proud to be Mississippi’s patient care leader.

— Dr. Alan Jones

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Thank you, Dr. Jones, for sharing this overview of burn care at UMMC and the many reasons why we chose to establish this vital resource. We look forward to working with all the necessary partners that will be involved in or have a stake in the state’s burn center, including elected officials, community partners, burn care advocates, hospitals across the state and the State Health Department. We believe the Mississippi Burn Center joining the list of other “only here” programs at UMMC is the right thing to do and the best move on the path toward A Healthier Mississippi.