Bed Rooms

Good morning!

I have some encouraging news to share with you regarding the progress we are making in hospital staffing. Many of you have written to me with your concerns about low staffing and the impact it has had on our clinical operations and our ability to open beds for patients who so desperately need the health care services that in some cases only we can provide.

In my May 20, 2022 VC Notes, I shared that bed closures continued to be an issue in our adult hospital due to low staffing. The pandemic took a toll on us in so many ways, but we especially felt the impact in our hospitals. Staffing challenges are not unique to our Medical Center. Hospitals across the country are wrestling with the same problem.

But we are making significant progress. Today I am pleased to report that we are down to only 14 beds offline thanks to plans and initiatives that have been underway related to innovative staffing models, compensation initiatives and focused recruitment and retention efforts. Keeping our hospitals fully staffed will continue to be a concern for some time to come, but it’s important to note that UMMC still has more adult beds open now than before the pandemic and more than we have ever had in our history due to recent growth. 

Within the past 18 months, we opened 14 new medical surgical beds on 6 West. We are also in the process of reopening 10 adult ICU beds, and 12 overflow medical surgical beds on 7 South. With the opening of the Children’s Hospital expansion, we added 10 additional beds to our NICU and 2 beds to the PICU.

This is no small feat in such a competitive market for nursing and other professional staff. This is the result of a concerted effort. I want to thank the hospitals’ leadership teams, especially Dr. Kris Cherry, chief nursing executive, for working together on creative solutions to provide relief for our dedicated caregivers who have gone above and beyond while we worked the plan, and for the patients who depend on us to help them in their greatest times of need.

We’ve recently held two successful nurse recruitment events as well as outreach efforts for hiring respiratory therapists, nursing assistants and other hospital staff, all of whom are vital members of the patient care team.  It truly takes a village!

For all of you that ensure the hospitals run smoothly, efficiently and in a way that makes health care delivery the best and most effective for our patients - thank you for all that you do each day.

We know that we have more work to do to make sure we have all the professional staff we need to provide care at the highest level, and we will continue to find new strategies to address recruitment. With this progress we have made so far, we are one step closer to A Healthier Mississippi.