Q&A

Good morning.

It’s been a little while since I’ve had a Q&A VC Notes so today I’ll respond to more than the usual five.

Just as a reminder, I read all of your questions and comments and enjoy hearing from you. I’m only able to respond to some of them in this space, but I pass the rest along to senior administrators for their review and possible follow up.

Q:  Hi, I recently gave birth at our hospital and all of my newborn’s follow-up has been at the beautiful new hospital. There are so many great features that create an overall positive experience (like the patient pass kiosks!). Unfortunately, I could not find anywhere private for breastfeeding while we waited to be called back and had to choose between exposing myself or letting my daughter scream. Are there designated areas for breastfeeding that I am simply unaware of?

A:  Congrats on the new baby! And I’m glad to hear you are happy with some of the new features intended to improve the patient experience.

Thanks to work by a group led by Dr. Juanyce Taylor and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, there is now an online listing of available breastfeeding/pumping spaces. UMMC lactation services, including locations where new moms can breastfeed or pump in a specially designed area, and lactation resources and policies, can be found here. Employee designations for each room are included in the list but the room in Wiser at W141, outside the Wiser NICU, is available to anyone, including visitors. Additional spaces on the main Jackson campus and in other UMMC facilities are planned and will be added to this list when available. If your department has a lactation spot set aside that is not on this list, please send an email with that information to odi@umc.edu.

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Q:  In lieu of recent shootings in the country and specifically hospital settings, what steps are we taking to ensure this doesn’t happen at UMMC? For example, metal detectors at all entrances.   

A:  The UMMC Police and Public Safety Department is a fully trained and experienced law enforcement agency that is constantly on patrol in and around our facilities, including the stadium parking lot. Chief Paradis and her team – which includes seven new patrol officers who were sworn in this week – routinely train in active shooter response scenarios and provide officers with specialized tactics and scenario-based training on weekends. UMMC Police works with local, state and federal agencies to make certain everyone is familiar with our campus.

Training events will be available in the coming months for all employees including de-escalation techniques and civilian responses to active shooter events. These training sessions along with routine physical security assessments can increase staff awareness, make workspaces safer and reduce the likelihood of an incident. UMMC units can request a physical security assessment of their areas here. Training sessions will be posted to the Intranet calendar when available and if you would like site-specific training for your unit, email Chief Paradis at mparadis@umc.edu. 

UMMC Police asks that you continue to assist through the “See something, say something” model. If you see ANY suspicious activity, in a building or on the grounds around our facilities, please call 4-1360 from a UMMC phone or 601-984-1360 from your cell phone to report it.

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Q:  On multiple occasions I have called into the DIS Helpdesk and have never actually had a person answer... just stay on hold until I eventually hang up. Today, after waiting almost 20 minutes, I decided to use the option they provide to leave a voice message by pressing "1". After leaving my message, I received an email saying that the recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages. Is there anything that can be done to alleviate this issue? I am aware of the helpdesk email address but sometimes would like to call and speak with someone. Afterall, it is an option DIS is providing. Thank you!

A:  I presented your question to Kevin Yearick, chief information officer for technology. He wanted me to pass along a “Thanks for the assist” for this submission into the VC Notes inbox. DIS had been cleaning out the HelpDesk email inbox, including voicemails, thinking it was also emptying the voicemail inbox, but that wasn’t happening. Thus, the result was a full voicemail inbox that could no longer accept any more messages. That box is now clean and should be again working properly.

Also, Kevin says that they are working on a system to add more people answering the HelpDesk line during times of major Internet service or Epic outages, so, hopefully, that will lessen some of the wait during those times.

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Q:  Is there a plan to update the version of Microsoft Office downloaded on campus devices? Currently, we are running Office 2016, which lacks many of the features available in more up-to-date versions. DIS has suggested using Word online, but it limits several necessary formatting features.

A:  This question has come in a few times over the past several months. Implementing a widely used tool like Word in a large organization like ours is not an easy task and a lot of testing needed to be done to make sure everything would work properly without any issues. DIS conducted some testing and then last month rolled out the new version to all of their employees in a trial run and, so far, everything is working. The updated software will be rolled out to all users in waves through August.

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Q:  Is there a plan to address the staffing issues with ambulatory clinics? Most of the UMC ambulatory clinics are severely understaffed and there is no end in sight due to losing candidates to other clinics/hospitals due to pay for employees. Is there any initiative being done to recruit CMA's, LPN's, MOA's, schedulers which is what most ambulatory clinics need? We see daily the ads on social media for hospital workers but absolutely zero push for ambulatory workers.

A:  Certainly, our clinics are experiencing staffing shortages like all other patient care areas and our recruitment efforts to increase staff include ambulatory positions. This includes work with our preferred clinical staffing partner, Healthier Mississippi People. We are transitioning some of our vacant ambulatory positions to HMP for those applicants who may prefer that route.

Our LPNs, which are mostly in ambulatory settings, recently received a market-driven compensation adjustment, which should help increase interest in those positions. And LPNs will be a focus area along with RN positions during a nurse recruitment event that will happen from 6-10 p.m. on August 4, 2022 during Fondren Live. We hope to be able to speak to a lot of potential candidates during that well-attended event.

And Dr. Kris Cherry, our chief nursing executive, reports that meetings were held with four area technical schools in the hopes of developing a workforce pipeline of patient care tech graduates. That kind of constantly active program – like our frequent visits to Mississippi community colleges, including LPN-specific programs – is a helpful way to keep up with ever-changing workforce demands.

Staffing shortages persist and requires identifying new, innovative solutions to address it, and I appreciate the work of all who are involved in addressing this ongoing issue.

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Q:  Can staff please have access to park in garage C on nights weekends and holidays?? It is almost always empty since clinics are closed.

A:  Garage C is primarily a patient/visitor lot but employees who are working a night or weekend shift are permitted to park on the top level of Garage C, free of charge. To get details on the times this is permitted or how to gain access, contact FacilitiesServices-Parking@umc.edu.

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Q:  Morrison's employees in the cafeteria are rarely friendly, often ignore people at the counters, and have no respect for people waiting for food. The new hamburger section is so slow. I have waited over 20 minutes for my order, and have had to completely cancel on other visits. I watched a group of visitors wait at the counter while employees walked by and didn't acknowledge them being there. Often, entire lunch breaks are used waiting in line. We understand busy times, but when it is not a "busy" time and people have to wait to even be acknowledged, there is a problem.

A:  Thank you for bringing these concerns to my attention. Visits to our cafeterias should be an enjoyable, affordable experience.

Kimberlee Daniels, chief operating officer for adult hospitals, approached the Morrison’s leadership here at UMMC on this and received encouraging feedback, a plan to address the concerns and a reiteration of their commitment of excellence that was a key factor in their selection as our food services vendor.

As for customer service, Morrison’s is working to address concerns. Following a change in staff members that did not meet Morrison’s standard, additional customer service training on working in a health care environment has been included for new hires. Morrison’s leadership is increasing their customer service monitoring and will intervene with their associates as needed.

Hopefully, bringing these concerns to their attention will improve your experience when you stop by to pick up a meal or snack.

I encourage all of you to continue to share your experiences with Morrison’s with me. My expectation is that the positive comments far outweigh the negative ones.

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Q:  Has UMMC developed any guidance for practitioners surrounding medical marijuana 'prescribing'?

A:  According to the state boards of medical and nursing licensure, qualifying practitioners who want to become certifiers for medical marijuana must complete the appropriate CME requirements and then submit an application for certification. To submit for certification, you must first register with the Mississippi State Department of Health here. After gaining certification, you’ll need to annually submit the certification and documentation that you’ve met the CME-requirements to the UMMC Office of Medical Staff Services at MedStaffSrvs@umc.edu.

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Again, thanks for all of the questions and comments you send to me through VC Notes inbox, found here. Keep ‘em coming!

Before signing off today, I want to express appreciation to everyone who has been involved in all of the tedious, difficult work of getting as many of our patient rooms available as possible. Currently, our bed number exceeds pre-pandemic bed availability. While we still have a few that are closed, we have a plan to get those open very soon. Amazing work on this. Thank you. It’s important that we have fully operational facilities – and the workforce to staff them – to maximize our push toward A Healthier Mississippi.