Coffee Talk with Dr. Justin Turner
Good morning and happy Patient Safety Week!
It’s been a great week of activities and recognitions aimed at encouraging more focus on measures to improve patient safety and at raising awareness about our number one strategic priority: clinical quality.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to visit the hallway between University Hospital main lobby and the original hospital where the walls are covered with clings showcasing unit and department successes in clinical quality and safety metrics. Each department represented deserves recognition for dedication to protecting our patients and fostering an atmosphere of safe care. And congrats to all of the units that were recognized during yesterday’s car race-themed awards ceremony. A list of winners will be in Monday’s eCV.
And during this morning’s Leadership Rounds, Dr. Phyllis Bishop, chief quality officer in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, told us some outstanding news: Zero CLABSI infections in February! What a great way to end Patient Safety Week. CLABSI stands for central line associated bloodstream infection. Central lines are often required to care for our highest acuity patients and can increase the chance for infection, so to not have a single incident in a whole month is amazing and a real testament to the dedication to infection prevention measures by our clinical teams and that our standardized central line care and maintenance measures are working. Well done.
Today’s main item is a Coffee Talk I recently had with Dr. Justin Turner, who runs a clinic in Jackson and is the medical director for the Mississippi State Department of Health. He’s passionate about improving Mississippi’s health status and strongly believes in the power of community engagement. He also has a UMMC connection that you’ll hear him talk about.
I really enjoyed chatting with Dr. Turner and hearing a little about his story and what drives him, and I thought you too would like to hear more from one of our state’s health care champions.