Mississippi-Based Technology Company Launches Revolutionary Personal Communicator and Medical Alert Service

RIDGELAND—A Mississippi technology company recently launched a revolutionary personal communicator and medical alert service to help seniors remain independent in the home.

Jorge Salazar, MD, propelled Mississippi to the medical forefront once again by performing the state's first arterial switch procedure on a Heidelberg newborn.

The Continuing Battle to Keep Athletes Safe from Supplements

Turn to the sports page in any paper, and the headlines serve as a constant reminder that professional athletes of all stripes have been tempted to step outside the straight and narrow path of good nutrition and hard work to get an edge on the competition. From baseball to bicycling, athletes are under tremendous pressure to be bigger … faster … stronger.

Selecting Software to Meet Meaningful Use

Considering the implications going forward, one of the most critical decisions a healthcare organization will make is the selection of a software system to drive its administrative and clinical functions. Long before installation, however, the real work begins.

As the national consciousness regarding nutrition and physical activity continues to rise, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is actively preparing the framework to guide the nation's chain restaurants toward caloric disclosure as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Chancellor, University of Mississippi

Dan Jones, MD, is enthusiastic about the undercurrent of continued positive change taking place at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC).

IHCS Expands Nationwide as Only Certified Mississippi-Based EHR Provider

18^th Annual Analysis Confirms Decreases in Average Annual Salaries

In the last quarter of 2010, HORNE LLP released the results of the 18^th Annual Medical Office Staff Salary Survey^©, which showed decreases in average salary for a substantial number of positions in comparison to the 2009 analysis.

Knoxville Company Offers Turnkey Option

The mother of a sick 6-year-old pushes a double stroller out of the pediatrician’s office, the feverish first-grader trailing behind. In the stroller are a 3-year-old and a hungry and crying 8-month-old. What’s next? A 30-minute wait with three kids in tow for the two prescriptions at a chain pharmacy across town.

When Judge Reuben Anderson and Aaron Shirley, MD, shared lunch at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in the Jackson Mall in 1995 to discuss Anderson serving on the Tougaloo College Board of Trustees, Shirley remarked that the mall would serve as an ideal facility to relocate the Hinds County Comprehensive Medical Center.

River Oaks Opens New Hospital in Madison County

Despite the wicked weather that surged through the magnolia state in April, Mississippi’s newest hospital opened months ahead of schedule.

Mississippi Health Summit Sparks Collaboration Among State’s Top Healthcare Leaders

A day before the Royal Wedding gave the world “a glorious day for hope for the future,” 155 top healthcare leaders from across the state came away from the collaboration-centered, one-day Mississippi Health Summit echoing the word “hope” for the future of Mississippi healthcare.

Donald Faucett was out to help people feel better about themselves. He entered medical school with his eye on psychiatry, but in the years that followed, his career has steered him instead toward a more efficient means to that end.

J. Kim Sessums, MD, has three half-finished pastel drawings in his clinic office and an armature for modeling clay in the hospital’s call room. “I’ve figured out how to work in small blocks of time,” said the Brookhaven OB/GYN, who over the past two decades has built a parallel career as a noted artist and sculptor.

None of Jack and Risa Moriarity’s three young children will tell you they want to be a doctor when they grow up. But if the ambition strikes them later on, they’ll have a real head start when it comes to grasping the job’s highs and lows.

Tom Joiner, MD, is a dinosaur. He wants to make sure other doctors have the freedom to be one, too. It’s a label he wears proudly, evoking the old-fashioned model of medicine he witnessed as a boy in Greenwood and practices today at his clinic in south Jackson.

States Take Legal Action to Counteract Federal Mandates

Some states are taking aggressive measures to stymie implementation of crippling federal health reform mandates. Of the 20 active cases in judicial districts across the United States, with 21 states as plaintiffs, three suits for legal remedies are gaining traction.

Baptist Acquires hana® Table for Direct Anterior Approach to Hip Replacement

Baptist Medical Center in Jackson recently acquired a unique instrument that allows orthopedic surgeons to take a direct anterior approach to hip replacement that, among other benefits, greatly reduces down time for patients.

Uncovering the Molecular Pathway Linking Diabetes to Brain Disorders

As a systemic disorder, diabetes is attached to a long list of comorbidities and heightened risk factors. Through public education campaigns, even laymen are now aware that diabetes is associated with a greater risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, kidney failure, neuropathy, amputation and blindness.

FCC Works to Ensure Rural Providers Realize Telemedicine Benefits

All dressed up with nowhere to go. With the healthcare industry’s rapid movement toward broad implementation of electronic health records and utilization of wireless-enabled medical devices, it’s easy to overlook the fact that many providers around the country still don’t have access to adequate broadband connectivity.

Mississippi Regional Extension Center Exceeds National Goals

When eQHealth was given the grant-required mandate to sign up 1,000 primary care providers in Mississippi by 2013 and to help them incorporate electronic health records (EHRs) into their medical practices, it seemed a tall order to fill.

SAR Dogs Provide Needed Service, from Search-and-Rescue to Therapy 

HOLLY SPRINGS—In the 15 years Judy Otto has worked with K9 SAR (canine search-and-rescue), she's noticed a growing demand from the senior sector, from finding elders with fading memories who have wandered off, to therapy for soothing even personalities of the most ornery type.

Initiative Encourages Orthopedists to Own Bone Health

When patients more than 50 years old present with a fragility fracture, the American Orthopaedics Association has a message for the orthopedists who treat them: own the bone.

New Orleans Surgeons Perform Groundbreaking Incisionless Weight Loss Surgery

NEW ORLEANS—Six weeks before the holiday season commenced, Tom Lavin, MD, performed a unique procedure—incisionless bariatric  surgery known as POSE (Primary Obesity Surgery, Endolumenal)—on his 39-year-old sister to boost her weight loss efforts.

New Emergency Department, Surgical Suites to Open Spring 2011

FLOWOOD—River Oaks Hospital in Flowood is expanding again, mirroring Rankin County's population spike by increasing emergency and surgical services.

Glen Silverman Discusses HMA's Expansion into Madison County

On Sept. 1, Health Management Associates (Nasdaq: HMA) made it official: Glen Silverman, CEO of Central Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, would take the helm of the new $42 million Madison River Oaks hospital being built off Interstate 55 at Nissan Parkway in Madison County and also serve as CEO of Madison County Medical Center.

Baptist Now State’s First Facility with Comprehensive Thoracic Surgery Clinic

Baptist Medical Center in Jackson recently became the first facility in Mississippi to offer a comprehensive thoracic surgery clinic that provides a full complement of surgical procedures for chest diseases.

When physician-researcher James "Jim" G. Wilson, MD, joined the medical staff at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the faculty at University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1986, he brought to the table an uncommon expertise in population science.

Mississippi OB/GYN Leads National Medical Regulatory Group

Just after Easter, Freda McKissic Bush, MD, took over as chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to lead the national organization representing 70 state medical and osteopathic boards.

STARKVILLE–The Cancer Care at Premier Health Complex, a comprehensive cancer treatment facility located in Starkville, offers Golden Triangle patients a new approach to cancer treatment.

Rising UMMC School of Nursing Dean Discusses Solutions, Strategies

Myriad challenges facing the Mississippi nursing workforce include the aging of the workforce—both clinical practitioners and educators, increasing complexity of patient care, the aging population, the exponential increase in knowledge and decision support available to practitioners and consumers, the need to focus on quality and evidence-based practice, and the maldistribution of nurses, according to Kim Welch Hoover, PhD, RN, recently named dean of the University of Mississippi School of Nursing

Community Embraces River Oaks’ New Emergency Room

FLOWOOD—Two days after the vernal equinox marked the official onset of spring, River Oaks Hospital unveiled its new Emergency Room (ER), nearly triple the size of the original one built during the development of the hospital in 1981.

Magnet School and UMMC Partnership Boosts Medical Profession Interest

COLUMBUS—A new partnership between the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and Franklin Academy Medical Sciences and Wellness Magnet School in Columbus signifies a landmark event for a state plagued with overall poor health.  

Smooth Sailing for Baptist's New Women's Center for Surgery

When performing surgery at Baptist's new Women's Center for Surgery, Robert L. Harris, MD, and Steven E. Speights, MD, often find themselves surrounded by a sea of women.

Baptist’s New Hybrid OR Most Technologically Advanced in Mississippi

JACKSON—When Baptist Medical Center administrative leaders began planning new cardiovascular surgical suites, they huddled with cardiovascular surgeons on staff at the hospital—William J. Harris, MD, Charles S. O’Mara, MD, and W. Stewart Horsley, MD—to determine the best design

ICC Rolls Out State’s Only Complete Health IT Workforce Training Program

TUPELO—Health information technology (HIT) workforce training classes begin this month at Itawamba Community College (ICC) in Tupelo, the only community college in Mississippi offering all six HIT priority workforce roles.

Hitting the Mark

The Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) recently selected Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center (MSMOC) as an elite participant for its prestigious Arthroscopy Traveling Fellowship Program. 

Orthopedic Surgeon, Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center

Jay O'Mara, MD, makes the Energizer bunny appear lazy.

When football season starts, O'Mara, a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon at Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Jackson, will be on the sidelines of a game most Thursday nights, every Friday night and most Saturdays, clocking 16-hour days.

A "reflex" test is a procedure routinely added-on to a patient order when the initial test results are at a level that meets the clinician’s threshold to automatically add specific tests. In a nutshell, they are protocols that specify if this then that. While this makes a great deal of common sense, care to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s is the mainstay of billing and coding compliance. The documentation for dotting and crossing I’s and T’s is the heart of the compliance step.

TelEmergency Program Linking UMC ER Docs, Rural Hospitals Reaches Milestone

Imagine a rural hospital in Mississippi that connects emergency room patients to board-certified emergency medicine specialists at University Medical Center (UMC).

Seventeen years ago, Bill and Hillary Clinton's efforts at healthcare reform and the then newly ushered-in era of managed care sparked intense competition for primary care market share, and the race began. Physician practice management companies grew at unprecedented rates.

Long Wait Over

OLIVE BRANCH—After years of wrangling, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has been given the green light to build a new 100-bed acute care hospital in Olive Branch.

President and CEO, Mississippi Blood Services

When David Allen took the reins as president and CEO of Mississippi Blood Services (MBS) in 1988, he had been a board member for the not-for-profit organization for several years when it approved the establishment of Blood Centers of America (BCA), a for-profit cooperative jointly owned with three other blood centers in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Final Rule Options, E-Rx Mandates, Newly Introduced Federal Legislation among Practice Management Challenges

The "meaningful use" requirements outlined in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) final rule released mid-July will provide practice managers with an abundance of content to digest before the New Year rolls around.

Health care providers in Mississippi are converting to electronic medical records as required by federal Health Care Reform. Some state providers, however, have a head start. After Hurricane Katrina, the State Health Information Exchange was established to set up an electronic health care records system in the six coastal counties, ensuring that medical records would never be lost in storms again.