Good morning!

Today, I’ll briefly touch on several subjects that were either submitted to the VC Notes inbox or needed an update.

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.

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I have an update that I know a lot of you will be excited to hear if you have not already: Chick-Fil-A is back open and in its new home in Methodist Rehabilitation Center in the former McDonald’s location. After a couple of weeks of limited hours, regular times will be from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. This is a welcome addition to the many options provided at the main cafeteria and at the Wiser cafeteria.

The space in the main cafeteria where Chick-Fil-A used to be will become an area for hand-made burgers and hand-cut fries. That new area should be open in May.

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A few safety-related items to pass along.

First, though, I have to share the photo you see to the right that was tweeted by our UMMC Police Department as part of a national movement called 30x30, which aims to increase the number of women in policing. I love seeing how many women in uniform we have on our police force, led by Chief Mary Paradis.

Chief Paradis and her leadership team would like you to keep in mind a few things intended to keep you and the people around you safer:

• Don’t prop doors open to any UMMC building on the main campus or at another UMMC facility. Doing this circumvents safety measures and can allow non-authorized people access to buildings. Remember, it’s not just your co-workers who are counting on you to take actions that increase safety but our patients and visitors also expect this as well.
• Always wear your UMMC badge where it can be seen. And if you see someone not wearing a badge in an area you do not think they belong, you should feel comfortable questioning them and asking them to leave if needed.
• Pay attention to your surroundings. When you park – making sure to lock your vehicle – be aware of the area. If you see suspicious activity or persons, contact UMMC Police. And when walking, no matter where you are, inside or outside, put the phone down and stay alert. Not only will this help you be more aware, it can also prevent accidents.

If you see anything that may be a safety hazard, please email our Environment Health and Safety team at EHS-Safety@umc.edu and provide the location where the potential hazard is located. Other safety resources and how to submit a maintenance request can be found on the EHS Intranet page here.

Police and EHS are taking safety measures to help protect you and visitors to our facilities, such as education and training for students and employees, programs to reduce workplace violence, shuttle safety, increased collaboration with external law enforcement agencies and increased buildings and grounds safety and security assessments. If your department would like to get a Physical Security Assessment by UMMC Police, you can submit a request here.

Safety is everyone’s responsibility. We all need to do our part to improve our individual situational awareness to make our campus as safe as possible.

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Another safety-related update is that information about potential severe weather is now available on the Intranet when applicable. You may have noticed it this week when the National Weather Service predicted potentially dangerous storms for Tuesday afternoon that the red bar at the top of Intranet that had been a link to the COVID-19 information page switched to an orange alert about severe weather potential. The link goes to this page to provide information from NWS that you may need to know.

Emergency instructions for severe weather can be found here.

Make sure your mobile number is accurate and set as “Primary” in Workday to be enrolled in AlertU so you can get a text message when there is an active emergency, including an extreme weather event that is headed for campus, that you should be aware of.

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Recently, I asked Molly Brasfield, chief human resources officer, to create a committee of  faculty and staff representing our mission areas for the purpose of implementing an institution-wide employee recognition program. The Institutional Rewards and Recognition Committee is charged with managing external and internal awards programs including the nomination and recommendation processes.

Its first task is to lead the process for a few national awards opened by the Association of American Medical Colleges. If you would like to nominate someone for any of the awards listed below, click here. Information about and criteria for each of the awards is included in the linked page. Nominations, which can be submitted by faculty, staff and students, will be accepted until Tuesday, March 29, 2022.

The AAMC awards currently accepting nominations are:

• Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award
• Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award
• Herbert W. Nickens Award

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It’s hard to believe that 20 years ago an idea by Dr. Joyce Olutade, then an assistant professor of family medicine, materialized into the student-run Jackson Free Clinic. It’s amazing all the good that has been done by the students – starting with the School of Medicine but now representing all seven of our on-campus schools – who run and staff a clinic that provides free health care to thousands of underserved people with limited health care options.

I’m impressed by JFC’s growth over the years, including this year taking their services “on the road” providing care and COVID-19 vaccinations at events outside of the clinic. Many Mississippians have been helped through JFC and I believe the students who work there may get as much benefit as the patients.

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Several of you sent in reports that you periodically were hearing talk radio and music coming through the overhead speakers, especially in Batson Tower.

After looking into this issue, it was found that following last year’s upgrade of our aging phone system it was necessary to increase the volume of our also-aging paging system, which was not upgraded. This volume increase made it so that some local radio stations could be heard through the overhead speakers. For now, there’s no way to totally get rid of this connection without turning off the overhead speaker/intercom system, which isn’t advised for safety purposes.

Our Division of Information Systems team has a fix that has been applied to most areas that use the older paging system and this fix will be made in all areas that need it.

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We continue to communicate with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi in the hopes we will reach agreeable terms for a new contract for Blue Cross commercial plans before the current one ends on Thursday. It’s so important to Mississippi’s hospital and health care systems that the state’s only academic medical center and safety net hospital be in network with the state’s largest health insurance provider. We say all the time that we need partners to reach our goals and insurance agreements fit into that. I’ll update you next week on the status of things and I very much hope that I’ll be giving you good news about a major step forward on our journey to A Healthier Mississippi.