Growth and Improvements

Good morning.

Before I share important information about the future growth of the Medical Center, I want to pass along a reminder that your UMMC-issued electronic devices – phones, computers, etc. – should not be taken out of the country except on official UMMC business. Our information security team may see a log in to our system from another country as a threat and may block it or even totally wipe the device trying to log in. Your UMMC devices must be left at home when conducting any international travel not for UMMC business.

Now, let’s move on to today’s topic.

It’s not uncommon on our campus or at any of our other facilities to see construction activity. UMMC, including all of our clinic and office space statewide, is comprised of a LOT of square footage (6.5 million) and acres (187). There’s often a need for expansion or renovation.

Today, I wanted to give you an update on some active or pending projects. Some are large and will be highly visible, while other projects many of you won’t come across in your daily work but should be aware of. What follows isn’t all of what is happening or upcoming but gives you a good sense of how we are adjusting or expanding to meet certain needs.

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Education Facilities

• The biggest on-campus project got the green light last year and is about to break ground. Construction on a new School of Nursing building will begin this fall and should take a couple of years to complete. The state legislature appropriated $55 million during the 2022 session to help fund the $65 million project, which includes repurposing part of the University Rehabilitation Center building and erecting an adjacent tower.
  
  Our nursing school was the second school established on this campus and still operates partly out of the original 1958 space. It’s certainly time for the state’s largest producer of nursing professionals to move into a bigger, state-of-the-art facility. The expanded space will allow the school to increase enrollment, which will help fill the many nursing openings across the state.

• The largest project on the horizon is the combination ambulatory surgery education facility and medical office building that will be built in Ridgeland adjacent to I-55 off Colony Park Drive. This is the land north and northwest of the Washington Monument-looking cellular tower. We are calling this new development UMMC Colony Park, and it’s a much-needed addition to meet our educational mission. ASCs are becoming more prevalent, and our students will benefit from the opportunity to train in the environment in which they could spend their entire career. And, this experience will benefit the patients who will one day be treated by our health science graduates. This project has been in the works for several years but is now moving full steam ahead. This is a large project and will take at least a couple of years to complete once started, which we anticipate will be before the end of this year.
  
  
• The most recent project on the docket was made official last month when the state legislature approved $40 million to renovate the existing School of Dentistry building and build a new clinical facility. The new addition, which will go in front of the current building, will be the home for SOD’s practice, which is where our students and residents are able to receive hands-on training. It’s an essential part of the school’s mission to increase oral health professionals in Mississippi and this project will allow the school to increase enrollment and improve facilities and equipment. Oral health is important for a person’s overall health, and our state needs more dentists, dental hygienists and dentistry-associated providers to meet growing needs. We appreciate our elected officials and IHL trustees supporting this important endeavor.

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Adult hospitals

• Having enough patient beds to meet demand is constantly an issue. To help ease this pressure, construction will soon begin on a build-out of the top floors in University Hospital and the Conerly Critical Care Hospital. This will be a two-phase project with phase one being a build-out of the 6^th floor of Conerly and 6 South in the adult hospital. In total, 50 additional beds will become available when work is completed around November 2024, including 18 ICU and 32 med/surg.
  
  Phase two will follow and will include the completion of the adult hospital’s 6 North and 7 North, opening an additional 64 med/surg beds. Both phases of this project will produce a total of 114 patient beds.

• In November 2023, we will start a renovation of space in the Adult Emergency Department and areas formerly used for cath labs and MED-COM to expand the ED, including increasing the number of beds and space for specialty emergency care. These are needed projects to support the state’s busiest and most well-equipped emergency department and highly trained staff. Construction should take about a year.
  
  
• The Mississippi State Department of Health named UMMC a designated burn center last month. To make available the space and facilities to better provide the complex care burn patients require, we will renovate the 1^st floor in Batson Tower that previously housed the PICU and where MICU-2 currently operates.
  
  This is an ideal location for the UMMC Mississippi Burn Center. It provides lots of floor space, has the framework to provide ICU-level care to adults and children as well as step-down and med/surg beds and can quickly access surgical suites on the top floor of Batson Tower. This effort follows our announcement in October that we intend to ramp up our burn care capabilities to provide the facilities, equipment and staffing needed to care for Mississippi burn victims.
  
  Selection of an architectural firm is currently underway and initial internal planning has already begun.

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Pediatrics

In the pediatric space, three projects will significantly improve our ability to care for Mississippi’s children and teens who need specialty services.

• Through private contributions, the largest of which is a $1.5 million gift from Jim and Pat Coggin, we are able to totally renovate the Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Clinic located on the ground floor of the Batson Tower. An eCV story in November introduced you to this project and some of the other thoughtful people and groups who are helping to make it happen. Patient care activities have moved out, and construction work will begin next month and should be completed in about a year.
  
  
• For a long time, an inpatient unit for adolescent behavioral health has been needed. Thanks to state and federal funds, this will become a reality. Plans are being developed to renovate the 2^nd floor of the original pediatric circle tower for an adolescent psychiatric unit as well as a new home for pediatric OT and PT. The timeline is for construction to start this fall and wrap up in the spring of 2025. This project will have a significant impact on teens needing life-saving inpatient psychiatric care.
  
  
• A new off-campus facility that was announced before the pandemic has a new timeline.
  
  In Dec. 2019, we announced our plans to build the state’s first skilled nursing facility for children, to be built on land adjacent to the Library Commission’s building off of Eastover Dr., just a few minutes away. Our palliative and complex care pediatric patients and their families have unique needs and this new building will allow for specialized care and provide an opportunity for educating family members who sometimes must provide round-the-clock care at home.
  
  Funded through state bonds as well as private funds, the legislation for the construction costs included naming the facility after recently retired state representative Alyce G. Clark, in honor of her years of efforts on projects like this one.
  
  This facility will have a dramatic positive impact on our pediatric patient with long-term needs and the families that care for them. 

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There’s a lot going on regarding expanding and renovating our facilities. It’s all good news!

With so many current and future projects on our list, you are likely to encounter the many different types of professionals it takes to get them done. These contractors are visitors on our campus and are instructed and expected to be professional and respectful while they’re here. But we also need to make sure we allow them to do their jobs. If you have concerns about noise, dust, and other by-products of progress, please contact your supervisor, and not the contractors directly.

We have a big, important job. We are Mississippi’s only health science education, patient care and research institution, and we are honored to serve our state. In this role, we must always assess what Mississippians need and innovate, change and grow to meet those needs to help us get closer to A Healthier Mississippi.