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University of Mississippi Provost Carolyn Staton examines the toes of Sim Man — a simulated patient run by computer programs in the Clinical Skills Lab at Baptist North Mississippi.

Recent additions to the services of Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi's (BMH-NM) Oxford facilities aim to give patients more direct access to the information they need and more responsive attention from their physicians.

Now in its first year, the Baptist Center for Breast Health has centralized services in separate waiting, information and diagnostic areas within the Baptist Diagnostic Center, part of the Baptist Centers for Cancer Care. Five female staff members are dedicated to the breast health space.

"We try to focus on the positive urgency of the message — to help people feel comfortable on the front end so they'll have the confidence to be proactive," said oncology nurse Allen Linton, who works closely with patients as the center's cancer navigator.

Linton's addition to the staff in May 2005 was followed that October by the launch of a new process for reviewing and communicating mammography results to patients. Before, physicians would receive their patients' reports the day after their mammograms and then contact patients with the results.

Now, patients whose results show the need for a biopsy learn the news from the radiologist immediately after he has read the films. Meanwhile, Linton notifies the patient's referring physician of the results and asks the physician to make an appointment with the patient's surgeon of choice as soon as possible.

Also at the four-year-old Baptist Diagnostic Center, recent additions include a full-time on-site PET scanner to replace the mobile one it shared with other hospitals in the Memphis-based Baptist system, as well as a new mammogram machine and computer-assisted detection for mammogram films. Other additions have included filmless picture archiving and communication systems (PACS).

The center has also worked with local surgeons to introduce the breast conservation therapy MammoSite®, an alternative to seven-week radiation treatment that delivers a high dose of radiation directly to the site over five days.

At the hospital's main facility, January marked the beginning of a transition into a hospitalist program, as Oxford's internists chose to step back from their role as the main admitting physicians.

The hospital responded by recruiting four new internists — Dr. Ehsan Durrani, Kelton Pace, Lynne Greene and James Thompson — to take on the primary duties of treating patients during their stay in the hospital. The new arrangement has worked well for both patients and hospital staff, while Oxford's internal medicine physicians have been able to focus on their clinic appointments.

"One of the keys to this for us has been customer satisfaction," said Larkin Kennedy, assistant administrator for BMH-NM. "Since the hospitalists don't have an outpatient practice, their care is completely specialized, so they're able to see the patients a lot faster than someone who is running back and forth from their clinic."

Because BMH-NM has an open program, local internists retain their admitting privileges, and their patients need not lose continuity in their care when they are hospitalized.

Most of the patients admitted through the hospitalist program are those being referred from surrounding communities or those who do not have a primary care physician, Kennedy said. The hospitalists admitted more than 650 patients to BMH-NM in the first half of the year.

In May, the hospital celebrated the grand opening of its new clinical laboratory and classroom, which has since been busy with CPR classes, nursing orientation, employee training and University of Mississippi (UM) nursing and pharmacy classes.

More than 430 people used the 3,000-square-feet facility adjoining the hospital in the month of July alone.

In the fall, the facility is also expected to see use by nursing students from Northwest Mississippi, Holmes and Itawamba community colleges during clinical rotations at the hospital.

"It's just a phenomenal space," said Monica Loden, orientation specialist in the hospital's education department. "I think the students probably don't realize what they have available, with models to demonstrate just about everything."

The facility was made possible through a $325,000 grant from the Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation and is shared by the UM School of Nursing. It allows educators to create realistic patient-care situations with equipment such as SimMan™ — anatomically accurate mannequin — and Cath Sim® Vascular Access Simulator.

Baptist Memorial Health Care and North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo have partnered to provide funding for a satellite bachelor of science in nursing program on the Oxford campus in addition to the one at the UM Medical Center in Jackson.

Nursing students in Oxford attend classes in a new 3,600-square-feet facility in Kinard Hall. Simulation training takes place in Baptist's clinical laboratory before the start of clinical rotations at the two hospitals. The program is designed to recruit more nurses into the profession.

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