Printer-friendly format

Ken Davis' life took a dramatic turn just after he was born.

Will Davis, who worked in the seed chemical business, and his wife, Frances, an elementary schoolteacher, adopted him as an infant in 1957 when rules for adoption for very rigid.

"My mother made the ultimate sacrifice for me," said Davis, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta. "She had to quit teaching because at that time, you couldn't adopt a child with the wife working. You couldn't imagine that nowadays."

After graduating from Cleveland High School, Davis attended Millsaps College on a scholarship. He graduated with honors and quickly enrolled at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

"I always enjoyed people and science, so medicine was just a natural fit for me," said Davis, who was drawn to internal medicine and geriatric medicine. "I was fascinated by the complexity of caring for the older patients. It required a team approach and a genuine understanding of what to treat and what to leave alone."

Because he also enjoyed looking at the bigger picture of improving systems of healthcare, Davis completed an extra year of administrative work as a chief medical resident.

"These combined interests in geriatric medicine and health policy led me to far away Boston," recalled Davis. "For a native Mississippian who had never lived outside the state, Boston was a culture shock."

Davis spent three years in a geriatric clinical and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He later completed a master's degree in health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

"Someone asked my father what I was studying at Harvard," said Davis. "His unexpected response was 'Nothing, they're studying him!' I'm pleasantly pleased to tell you that the education I received in Mississippi served me well in Boston. I received a teaching award from the medical students and was successful in securing a clinical investigator award from The National Institutes of Health and a clinical medicine research award from the Gerontological Society of America."

After living in Boston for five years, Davis knew it was time to come home. In 1992, he joined North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) in Tupelo as the chief medical officer.

"No one knew what that was, so I was free to do what I enjoyed, improving systems of healthcare," he explained. "I was pleased to discover that the management and staff at NMMC were much more sophisticated in the use of information technology than any hospital in Boston at that time. There was a very progressive thought about continuously improving the care delivered to people in the region served by the health system. We had wonderful early success in developing clinical protocols to care for patients using evidence-based information. The quality of the medical staff and medical leaders in our health system is truly phenomenal."

In 2005, NMMC won the prestigious AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Award from the American Hospital Association, the highest quality award in the country given by the organization. Last year, the hospital was awarded the state's first site visit from the Malcolm Baldridge organization.

Davis received the P.K. Thomas Leadership Award from the HealthCare Foundation of Northeast Mississippi, A.A. Derrick Physician Quality Award from Information and Quality Healthcare of Mississippi, and the first Executive Leadership Award from CareScience, a national quality data company.

He has served on the boards of directors of the Good Samaritan Free Clinic, Mississippi State Medical Association, Information and Quality Healthcare, Healthcare Foundation of Northeast Mississippi, and the University of Mississippi Medical Alumni Association.

Davis also achieved a Six Sigma Black Belt designation, representing an industrial performance improvement methodology widely used in manufacturing. "It's the newest thing to healthcare," he said. "About 70 percent of what we do is waste. This is a whole different way of looking at healthcare."

Six years ago, the hospital marketing director approached Davis and the local NBC affiliate television station to develop a daily health education program. The 60 Second Housecall now airs every weekday at noon and 10 p.m. on WTVA. More than 1,700 television segments have been produced.

"This is a great way to improve the health education of our region," said Davis. "It's very rewarding when people approach me and say something they heard on the Housecall made a difference in their life."

One of the highlights of Davis' career occurred in 2005, when he shared the hospital's performance improvement accomplishments at Massachusetts General Hospital Grand Rounds. Harvard physicians gave Davis a standing ovation.

Davis and his wife, Nancy, and their 7-year-old son, Jacob, raise two bulldogs, Otis and Sally Kate, and a lab, Geoff, on a 50-acre farm outside of Tupelo.

"It's truly amazing to live in a small Mississippi town on 50 acres of land and be 10 minutes away from work in one of the most sophisticated hospitals in the country," he said. "I'm in a very special place. My childhood dream has come true, to not only care for patients one on one, but to also help shape health systems to provide better care for a whole population."

Even more amazing is that Davis has accomplished so many goals while enduring life with multiple sclerosis for the past 15 years and being confined to a wheelchair for a decade.

"I guess I'm just too dumb to quit," said Davis, with a chuckle. "Got too much yet to do. My ambulation is very poor; I don't walk any more. But I still practice medicine. I have 25 patients in the hospital today. Because a lot of my geriatric rehabilitation patients are in wheelchairs, it fits well for me that we're both infirm. Yet they see me practicing medicine and working, and that gives them hope."

Tags:

None