Good morning.

Today, I’ll respond to some of the comments and questions you’ve sent to me through the VC Notes inbox. I often hear positive feedback about these “5 Questions” columns and I, too, like being able to provide you some brief updates on items you’re interested in or about which you want more information.

Before I get to that, I want to encourage you to fill out the well-being survey you received in your email inbox on Tuesday. Our Office of Well-being will use results from this confidential survey to discover new activities and/or programsor to build upon existing initiatives. The survey only takes a few minutes but the feedback received is valuable. To those of you who have already completed yours, thanks!

Now, on to your questions and topics of interest.

Just as a reminder, I read all of your questions and comments and enjoy hearing from you. I’m only able to respond to some of them in this space, but I pass the rest along to senior administrators for their review and possible follow up. You can submit your question or comment to the VC Notes inbox here.

The first two items I’ll cover are routinely the topics of the comments I receive: safety/security and food services. 

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Since I’ve been at UMMC, I can think of no other time that there have been as many projects and initiatives intended to improve safety and security for you and everyone who visits our campus or facilities as there are currently. The safety of our employees, students, patients and visitors is a top priority.

I checked with UMMC Police Chief Mary Paradis for a brief rundown of what’s new or what’s coming.

• Improvements have been made to stadium parking lighting to brighten up the lots and additional lights are planned to be installed this spring.
• Patrol shifts have been increased for the stadium lots.
• Bike patrol officers are wearing bright, reflective vests to make them more visible – to you and anyone who has bad intentions.
• The security cameras around the main campus were upgraded and the new system includes license plate reading technology.
• An agreement with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety is in the works that aims to increase and improve our collaborations with Capitol Police and increase the number of uniformed officers on our Jackson campus.
• Upgraded technology that runs the Alert U system is being installed. The new system, which will have a smart phone app component, will not only increase timely notifications intended to increase your awareness of security risks but will also provide functionality within the app to allow you to notify UMMC Police in cases of a possible or emergent threat to your safety. More information on this is forthcoming as the system gets closer to implementation.
• The Behavioral Response Team continues to be effective and is credited with diffusing several situations. This has been a hugely successful endeavor.
• For any department/unit/school that wants it, UMMC Police will conduct a Physical Security Assessment of your areas. The form to request this service can be found here.
• If you’d like to join any of the safety training classes UMMC PD leads, please contact Olivia Wargo at owargo@umc.edu.

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Judging by the number of comments you send me through the VC Notes inbox and from what I hear by word of mouth, there’s a lot of frustration surrounding food services, including the cafeterias. Food services at UMMC are handled by a third-party vendor, Morrison.

I’m not going to respond directly to a food services-related submission this time but I do want you to know that ALL of them – going back for the past couple of years – have been shared with the vendor and the UMMC team managing that relationship. A group of UMMC leaders has been recently brought together to bring in a new perspective and focus on food services at UMMC and several specific areas of concern are being addressed with the vendor.

I want to state clearly that I’m keenly aware of how important it is that you have high-quality meal options that are readily available according to your schedule and that our patients receive tasty meals – appropriate for their diet restrictions – at needed times. Improving food services is high on the priority list and we’ve communicated to the vendor that we expect to see these improvements soon. We are putting many options on the table for changes.

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Q:  Can we have every service evaluate their processing of Epic referrals? I have noticed that over time, some referrals are not processed or not completed in a timely manner, forcing me to rely more and more on a phone call or email with another provider.

A:  Good, timely question.

We are working on our referral process as part of an overall access redesign and we’re going at it from both sides of the coin – internal referrals and external referrals. A major body of work on this issue kicked off in July last year.

The primary goals are to improve schedule lag time and increase the referral conversation and retention rates. To reach these goals, the areas of focus include:

• Epic Care Everywhere
• Online forms and faxes
• Referral order processes
• Pre-scheduling referral
• Clinical triage processes
• Text message system, Tavoca use and other patient outreach methods
• ED and inpatient referral scheduling before discharge

This is a big project. The work group is trying to cover all the angles, but when we can get this optimized, it will have a huge positive impact across our health system.

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Q:  Can we please get the clocks all over our main campus to say the correct time. Outside patient care floors there are so many that perpetually say 12:00 or are still on daylight savings time. It has been months now that so many are wrong. If they cannot be adjusted, can they be turned off at least?

A:  These clocks are provided by an outside vendor. Recently, the clocks’ original control boards became obsolete and must be replaced. The vendor has ordered alternate control boards, which will be installed starting next week. Because of the delay in receiving and installing the new control boards, some of these clocks were unplugged. As Facilities Services goes through the process of bringing the clocks back online, they will remove any that are outdated or no longer necessary. This project should be completed in a couple of weeks.

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Q:  When walking in the covered walkway from the Dental School/Learning Resource Building toward the main hospital, what is the sound frequently heard? Oftentimes it resembles drilling or chains moving in the pipes.
Sincerely, Curious for a Decade

A:  Ha! I have heard these noises for more than a decade. When I first heard the noise years ago, I wondered if was something alive in the pipes. Thank goodness my first thought was wrong.

According to our Facilities Services experts, that sound is called “water hammer” and is produced by the steam moving through the pipes to heat most of the buildings on campus.  Water hammer is caused by a sudden drop in water or steam pressure, which can occur when a valve is closed or a pump is switched off. The sudden change in pressure causes a shock wave, which travels through the water or steam and causes the pipes to vibrate and makes the sounds you hear. 

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Again, thanks for these and all the submissions to the VC Notes inbox. I appreciate hearing from each of you.

To our faculty, I look forward to speaking to you during the Spring Faculty Meeting on Tuesday, March 7 in R153. We are lucky to have such a dynamic, caring faculty. The dedication our faculty show through patient care, research and training the next generation of health scientists and providers is key in realizing A Healthier Mississippi.