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Mary Taylor, MD

PAGE 2

PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT 50 Years of Caring

Merit Health Central Prepares to Observe Golden Anniversary

By LyNNE JETER

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Medical News exclusive series, “Who’s Tending Our Doctors?” to focus on ways the industry can help alleviate physician stress and allow physicians to return to the joy of practicing medicine.

Several years ago, Christine A. Sinsky, MD, FACP, made two signifi -cant time-saving changes to her practice life that allowed her to leave work sooner and have more time for family and personal interests.

The fi rst: taking a streamlined approach to prescription manage-ment.

Second: taking proactive planned care measures with patients via previsit laboratory tests.

“Just making a single change – prescription management – decreased phone calls to the practice by 50 percent. It saved 30 minutes of doctor time and 60 minutes of nursing time per doctor per day,” said Sinsky, an

By JONATHAN SCOTT More than a half century ago, a group of concerned

citizens in southwest Jackson saw that a much-needed life-saving need was missing from this growing community: a quality healthcare facility of its own.

The group met with the members of the Medical and Dental Affairs Committee of the Jackson Chamber of Com-merce, and they recommended that a professional hospital consultant be appointed to survey Hinds County and deter-mine the medical facilities needed.

A cost estimated was presented to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors and on Aug. 1, 1965, the need for a new hospital was apparently evident to the entire commu-nity because voters overwhelmingly approved a $4.2 million bond issue to pay for the construction of a new hospital.

Formal dedication ceremonies for the new facility, then known as Hinds General Hospital, were held on Sept. 26, 1965. The facility opened one area at a time and the fi rst

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)

The AMA Steps Up with STEPS ForwardAmbitious New Initiative Offers Physicians Strategies to Revitalize Medical Practices and Improve Patient Care

W H O ’ S T E N D I N G O U R D O C T O R S ?

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 6)

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UMMC Unveils ‘Quality’ Online Programs School of Health Related Professions Debuts Nationally Recognized ProgramThe School of Health Related Professions (SHRP) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is leading the way in demonstrating that, when it comes to online education, quality defi nitely matters ... 3

Discovery of Typically Disregarded Brain Lesions May Help Physicians Better Identify Stroke RiskIn a recently published study, scientists from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and colleagues discovered that very small brain lesions noted on brain imaging – typically disregarded by clinicians – are associated with a heightened risk of stroke and death ... 4

ONLINE:MISSISSIPPIMEDICALNEWS.COMNEWS.COM

2 > SEPTEMBER 2015 m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m

Children’s Heart Specialist Finds Homecoming RewardingNatchez Native Has Played Key Role in Growth of Congenital Heart Surgery Program

PhysicianSpotlight

By LUCy SCHULTZE

As division chief of pediatric cardiol-ogy and pediatric critical care at Batson Children’s Hospital, Mary Taylor, MD, is embracing the chance to use her skills and expertise for the benefit of children across her home state.

“It’s been a wonderful decision to come back to Mississippi,” said Taylor, a Natchez native who joined the faculty of the University of Mississippi Medical Cen-ter in 2011. “I saw that it would be a great opportunity to really make a difference in my home state and to be part of something that’s new and growing.”

It was from Vanderbilt University Medical Center that Taylor was recruited by Jorge Salazar, MD. Salazar is chief of the Division of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery and co-director of the Chil-dren’s Heart Center at Batson. Bringing Taylor aboard as co-director of the con-genital heart surgery program allowed the program to grow quickly over the past few years. Her role has focused on providing perioperative care for children who have heart surgery as well as developing pediat-ric cardiac intensive care services.

“In the past, they had a general ICU, and they had just started doing a few car-diac cases when Dr. Salazar came,” Taylor said. “But to do the more complex cases, you need to have a dedicated team that takes care of patients right after surgery.”

Today, Taylor oversees a pediatric critical care unit of 32 beds; among those, one-third to one-half serve cardiac surgery patients.

The congenital heart surgery program has now grown to some 400 cases a year, with strong outcomes based on compara-tive programs reporting to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Database.

“Our results are right on par — even compared to programs that have been in place for 30 years,” Taylor said. “Today, we even get referrals from some of our neighboring states. But our primary mis-sion remains providing care to all the chil-dren of Mississippi without having to send anyone out-of-state.”

Taylor said that, prior to the pro-gram’s establishment, Mississippi children with congenital heart disease were sent as far as Washington, Boston or Philadelphia to have heart surgery.

“These are fairly far distances, and as you can imagine, the families were dis-

placed and not able to go a lot of times,” she said. “Today, we really do every type of congenital heart surgery and have stopped referring patients out.”

A key aspect of the program’s growth and success has been the team of health-care professionals which provides care at Batson, Taylor said.

“I can’t say enough about the fact that it’s a team taking care of these complex pa-tients — from our nursing staff to respira-tory care,” she said. “All the parts of care have to really be exceptional to have such good results, and everyone here takes care of children as if it’s their own child. We are really dedicated and passionate about that.”

Taylor’s own dedication to the health-care field started early. As the daughter and sister of physicians, she was focused on medical school throughout her growing-up years. She earned an undergraduate de-gree from Southern Methodist University, then returned to UMMC.

“At the time, there were few women in medicine,” she said. “But I really en-joyed medical school here, and I was able to shadow and work with a pediatric car-diologist who was one of the founders of the vision we’re still carrying out today. Dr. David Watson took me in and mentored me in pediatric cardiology, and I knew it was what I wanted to do.”

Lacking any fellowship opportunities at UMMC, Taylor headed to Vanderbilt for residency training in pediatrics followed by fellowships in pediatric cardiology and pediatric critical care. In addition, she completed a visiting fellowship in Cardiac

Critical Care at Boston Children’s Hospi-tal. Taylor also earned a Master of Science degree in clinical investigation, and stayed on as part of the faculty at Vanderbilt for 10 years after completing her training.

Even since returning to Mississippi, Taylor has continued to take part in an-nual medical mission trips to Kenya with her former Vanderbilt colleagues. For the past six years, she has been among an 18-member team that travels to rural Kenya to provide congenital heart surgery and treat rheumatic heart disease.

“We’ve also been able to do some educational services, including teaching physicians at the mission hospital how to do surgery,” she said. “It’s been a very rewarding way to do something different with your skills and help a different group of people.”

Back home, Taylor looks ahead to continuing to grow the congenital heart surgery program — starting with simply getting the word out more broadly about all that’s developed in the last four years.

“There’s still a fairly large population of patients we are probably not seeing, especially from north Mississippi and the Gulf Coast, simply because not everyone in the state knows yet that we’re able to do heart transplants and other complex cases,” she said.

Next steps for the program include working to identify sooner the babies who will need treatment for a congenital heart defect, either as newborns or, even better, while still in the womb.

“We still have a lot of defects that are not recognized until the babies go home — and by the time they get to us, they are very sick,” she said. “We’re encouraged by the Mississippi State Department of Health’s new mandate that all newborns receive pulse oximetry testing for critical congenital heart defects. It will make a big difference for the state to be able to catch these children before they present very ill.”

Taylor and her colleagues at UMMC are also working toward an expansion of Batson Children’s Hospital and the devel-opment of new spaces for the congenital heart surgery program and cardiac ICU. That project is currently in the planning stages.

Outside of work, Taylor spends time with her family and enjoys photography, playing the piano and jogging, including taking part in half-marathons.

She and her husband, Michael, a commercial real estate broker, have three children: Jackson, 23, a graduate of the University of Richmond and of the mas-ter’s degree program in biomedical sci-ences at UMMC; Cille, 19, a sophomore at SMU; and Aubrey, 12, a seventh-grader at Jackson Preparatory School.

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St. Dominic’S internal meDicine iS PleaSeD to Welcome

Shanna B. Pettie, M.D.Dr. Pettie attended Tougaloo College before attending medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. After graduation, she joined the United States Army. She completed her internship and residency at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in Fort Bliss, Texas. She has since cared for active duty soldiers, spouses, dependents and retirees at Bayne Jones Army Community Hospital in Fort Polk, Louisiana and Reynolds Army Community Hospital in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Dr. Pettie grew up in Jackson, Mississippi where she learned the meaning of hard work and determination. She brings these values with her to her medical practice, striving to give each patient the personal attention they deserve. Dr. Pettie is married to active duty physician assistant, CPT Christopher Alden, and enjoys spending time with their children, Christopher, Zoe and Parker. She is a member of Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and in her spare time, she enjoys reading and spending time with her family.

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m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m SEPTEMBER 2015 > 3

By LyNNE JETER

The School of Health Related Profes-sions (SHRP) at the University of Missis-sippi Medical Center (UMMC) is leading the way in demonstrating that, when it comes to online education, quality defi -nitely matters.

The school has become Mississippi’s fi rst institution of higher learning to have its distance learning implementation plan accepted by Quality Matters (QM), a nationally recognized, faculty-centered, peer-review body that certifi es the quality of online courses. QM uses a rigorous as-sessment of course learning objectives, as-sessments, instructional materials, learner activities, student support and accessibility.

“We’re instilling a culture of high-quality online education at the medical center,” said Terry Pollard, MA, assistant professor and director of instructional de-velopment and distance learning in SHRP, point-ing out that QM is the “national benchmark” for online education cer-tifi cation.

Six of nine depart-ments in SHRP offer a fully online program, en-compassing a total of 130 courses that range from the undergradu-ate to the doctoral levels. The school’s QM implementation plan is expected to encourage 19 SHRP faculty from each of the six departments to achieve QM cer-tifi cation within three years for an online course they teach.

“The landscape of online education is changing,” said Rebecca Butler, MEd, as-sistant professor and co-ordinator of instructional development and dis-tance learning in SHRP. Butler and Pollard de-veloped the school’s QM implementation plan.

“When online edu-cation gained traction in the late 1990s, there were no guidelines on what constituted a good

course,” noted Butler. “Today, research is showing that aligned course objectives, learner-centered assessments and varied presentation of instructional content pro-duces a more successful student. Quality Matters is leading the way on this research and the certifi cation program identifi es faculty that apply these best practices in their course design.”

The QM seal of approval is so coveted that SHRP Dean Jessica Bailey, PhD, is preparing the institution’s fi rst QM-certifi ed course this fall in the Doc-tor of Heath Administra-tion Program, “Current Trends in Accreditation and Licensure.”

“About 40 percent of our student enrollment is for online programs and course offerings,” Bailey said. “We, as edu-cators, have a duty to provide the highest quality education to our students, whether in the traditional face-to-face setting or online instruction. It’s important for me to be willing to step out and offer my course as the fi rst one to be evaluated because I need to be aware of setting an example. Preparing your course for this level of ex-amination by online education experts is a lot of work. If I’m not willing to put forth the time and effort to prepare my course for this type of evaluation, how could I ex-pect the rest of my faculty to do it?”

At the heart of the school’s QM im-plementation plan is its association with the Medical Center’s UMMC/2020 Stra-tegic Plan.

“Our ability to educate allied health professionals via distance education di-rectly supports our mission to make Mis-sissippians healthier,” Bailey said. “It also closely aligns with the strategic plan for academic programs in terms of exposing our students to new technologies, support-ing the work force and applying alterna-tive education methods to serve the needs across the state.”

The decision to obtain certifi cation of its online educational programs comes at an opportune time for the school, which

was transitioning its learning management system from Blackboard to Canvas. The training course, developed in collabo-ration with the School of Nursing, has provided Pollard and Butler the opportu-nity to integrate QM principles into the school’s Canvas 101 faculty training.

Upon completion of the training, SHRP faculty in all six online academic programs now meet 26 of Quality Mat-ters’ 43 stringent standards, Pollard said.

Also, Christian Pruett, PhD, MBA, as-sistant professor of nursing, is introducing QM standards in the School of Nursing.

“Programmatically, we’re trying to identify some courses in the school to go through the Quality Matters pro-cess, then establish some benchmarks for our fac-ulty to help them align with Quality Matters,” said Pruett. “It’s a very big initiative for us. We want our courses to meet the benchmark, but for us, it’s more about incorporating quality into our professional development. We want to give our faculty the tools and resources to help them in the course-creation process. In time, we’ll take the courses through the Quality Matters authentication process.”

Pruett said both schools have em-braced the spirit of collegiality that’s fun-damental to the success of the institution’s educational offerings.

“Since both schools have such a strong distance-learning presence, we’ve decided to collaborate so we could have faculty in both schools who are Quality Matters-certifi ed,” he said. “We’re excited to be involved in Quality Matters and to try to align our courses to that standard moving forward.”

Pollard agreed.“In the future, we hope to collaborate

by assisting in a course review offered by either school,” he said. “We already col-laborate in other areas pertaining to online education and technology. The School of Nursing is a valuable ally and we cherish our relationship.”

Even though “quality” is a subjective concept that academic institutions always seek but can never completely obtain, Pol-lard said QM certifi cation insures an ongo-ing process that will keep the school focused on improving its online offerings daily.

“It’s fantastic to see faculty’s eyes light up at this opportunity for recognition,” he said. “Chasing quality in the fi eld of online education is challenging but rewarding, and we’re making great strides throughout the institution.”

UMMC Unveils ‘Quality’ Online Programs School of Health Related Professions Debuts Nationally Recognized Program

Terry Pollard

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4 > SEPTEMBER 2015 m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m

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By LyNNE JETER

In a recently published study, sci-entists from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and colleagues discovered that very small brain lesions noted on brain imaging – typically disre-garded by clinicians – are associated with a heightened risk of stroke and death.

The finding about these tiny lesions — areas of the brain where tissue has been damaged by injury or disease —may help physicians identify people at risk of stroke and death as early as middle age, even when they aren’t displaying symptoms of cardiovascular disease.

“The lesions on the brain imaging

were very small, less than 3 millimeters, and are typically ignored in clinical prac-tice,” said Gwen Windham, MD, an as-sociate professor of internal medicine and geriatrics at UMMC and the lead study author. “This is because we’ve been uncertain as to their meaning. No stud-ies have looked to see if these very small lesions are related to important clinical outcomes. Our findings suggest they’re at least as important as 3 milli-meter or larger lesions that are typically considered abnormal, even in absence of

other lesions.”The researchers analyzed brain mag-

netic resonance imaging (MRI) data from nearly 1,900 individuals participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communi-ties (ARIC) Study. Participants were 50 to 73 years of age, with no prior history of stroke. Their health was tracked for roughly 15 years.

Risk of stroke or stroke mortality in people with small lesions posed a three times greater risk, compared with people with no lesions. People with both very small and larger lesions had seven to eight times a higher risk of these poor outcomes.

“Some of these lesions are so small, they have the resolution of a single pixel,”

said Thomas Mosley, PhD, director of the Memory Impairment and Neurodegenerative Dementia (MIND) Cen-ter at UMMC and senior scientist on the study. “In clinical practice, we would typically ignore these tiny lesions as in-significant. The assumption has been that these very small lesions probably aren’t particularly consequential, but in fact, they appear to be.”

Even though clinicians and research-ers tend to dismiss very small cerebral le-sions, these findings suggest the practice could warrant reconsideration, the re-searchers said.

In the United States, more than 800,000 strokes occur annually, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes. Strokes remain a leading cause of death and prompt more serious long-term disabilities than any other disease.

Knowing these tiny areas of damaged tissue indicate increased risk of stroke in apparently healthy people could be im-portant to help people maintain physical function and cognitive ability as they get older, said Windham, who also serves as director of the MIND Center clinic.

“We know that modifiable risk fac-tors like hypertension and diabetes are as-sociated with the larger structural changes in the brain, and those larger lesions are not only associated with stroke risk but with mobility impairments and cognitive impairments as well,” Windham said. “Ongoing trials may determine whether treatment of risk factors, like high blood pressure, reduce the incidence of these le-sions, stroke and associated death and dis-ability.”

The revelation about stroke risk grew from work at the MIND Center, a cutting-edge Alzheimer’s disease research institu-tion at UMMC.

“We’re trying to identify the factors that hasten cognitive decline and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and it may be one of our best prevention strategies is aggres-sive control of cardiovascular risk factors early in life, meaning in middle age,” Mos-ley said. “In Mississippi, the mortality rate from heart disease and stroke is among the highest in the nation, so we’ve been interested in this connection between car-diovascular disease, brain aging, and Al-zheimer’s disease for a long time.”

Prior studies have typically focused on older, predominantly Caucasian pa-tient samples, but this study was aimed at understanding brain changes from an ear-lier age and recruited a more middle-aged, bi-racial sample.

Half of the sample participants were black, who generally have higher rates of stroke and cardiovascular disease for

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Kristen Crawford, M.D.Dr. Crawford will begin serving patients with the Internal Medicine group at St. Dominic’s this fall.

Dr. Crawford attended Mississippi College before attending medical school at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, where she completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine. She will sit for her Board Certification in Internal Medicine this summer.

Dr. Crawford grew up in the small Mississippi Delta town of Rolling Fork where she learned the value of serving others and her community. She brings these virtues with her to her medical practice, striving to give each patient the personal attention they deserve.

Dr. Crawford is married to her wonderful husband, Nick, and enjoys spending time with him and their beautiful one-year old son, Coy. She is actively involved with Fondren Church, and in her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis, hunting, fishing and swimming.

StDCrawfordMSMed7.44x4.25.indd 1 8/10/15 3:35 PM

Discovery of Typically Disregarded Brain Lesions May Help Physicians Better Identify Stroke Risk

Dr. Gwen Windham

Dr. Thomas Mosley

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)

m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m SEPTEMBER 2015 > 5

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By LyNNE JETER

Telemedicine has quickly become the hottest topic in healthcare delivery, as the industry strives to adapt to its murky wa-ters of compliance. New services, such as Zwivel, a cosmetic surgery consultation ser-vice, are coming online with unprecedented frequency, piquing the interest of physicians and administrators about the unknown pos-sibilities of telemedicine.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this trend,” said Michael Sacopulos, JD, CEO of Medical Risk Institute and general counsel for Medical Justice Services, a 4,000-member group with physicians in all 50 states. “High speed inter-net connections are now the norm. Services like Facetime and Skype are more popular than ever. Under continued pressure to cut costs and cope with declining reimbursements, administrators believe telemedicine offers a tool for increasing efficiency. Patients also like the convenience and increased options that flow from telemedicine. So what’s not

to like? Shouldn’t we embrace the ‘new normal’ and sign on to a great, brave new world? Maybe, first let’s proceed with cau-tion.”

Among the state and federal compli-ance requirements when taking a practice online are licensure, professional liability considerations, standard of care, patient privacy, informed consent, and referrals for emergency surgery.

LicensureMedical providers “must be licensed

by, or under the jurisdiction of, the Medical Board of the State where the patient is located,” according to the Federation of State Medi-cal Boards’ Model Policy for the Appropri-ate Use of Telemedicine Technologies in the Practice of Medicine.

“Unfortunately,” noted Sacopulos, “this requirement imposes traditional state boundaries on the cyber world. Efforts need to be made to identify the residences of pro-spective telemedicine patients so the medi-cal provider does not accidentally practice in a state without a license.”

Professional LiabilityMost professional liability insurance

policies provide state-specific coverage, meaning that if a provider accidentally practices telemedicine on an out-of-state patient, there may be no coverage, said Sa-copulos.

“Providers wanting to expand into the area of telemedicine should check with their insurance carrier,” he suggested. “An-other consideration relates to cyber issues. Traditional medical malpractice policies provide little to no coverage for electronic breaches. The nature of a telemedicine gen-erates exposures to a variety of cyber risks. Any practice moving forward with offering telemedicine should have a comprehensive cyber insurance policy.”

Standard of Care It’s imperative to note that telemedi-

cine is the practice of medicine, and not “medicine lite,” Sacopulos pointed out.

“All the duties and obligations that come with in person consultations are owed to the remote telemedicine patient,” he ex-plained.

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently stated there’s a general consensus among AMA members that care provided via telemedicine needs to meet the

same standard as care provided in person.” Also, the Federation of State Medical

Boards made clear the position by stating: “In fact, these guidelines support a consis-tent standard of care and scope of practice notwithstanding the delivery tool or busi-ness method in enabling physician-to-pa-tient communications.”

“Before starting to use telemedicine as a tool to consult with remote patients, a practice should plan how it will meet the standard of care it provides for its in-office patients,” said Sacopulos. “For example, how will it document a dermatological con-dition? If the condition is normally photo-graphed when a patient is in the office, then the practice should be ready to capture the same quality of image via telemedicine. Each step of the consultation should be planned in advance to ensure it is equal in quality to an in-office evaluation.”

Patient PrivacySacopulos said it’s also important to

note that any form of electronic commu-nication with a patient should immediately bring to mind HIPAA and HITECH Act obligations.

Telemedicine: A Virtual Compliance Jigsaw PuzzleA Closer Look at the New Wave in Healthcare Delivery

Michael Sacopulos

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)

6 > SEPTEMBER 2015 m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m

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wing to officially open only had 26 beds. On Oct. 8, 1965, the history of Hinds General Hospital officially began. The first baby was born on Jan. 19, 1966.

The community is celebrating the first half century in the life of the medical cen-ter, now known as Merit Health Central. The healthcare provider has overcome many challenges and storms, including a literal one that occurred shortly after it opened.

On March 3, 1966, the hospital withstood any damage from a violent F5 tornado, dubbed the Candlestick Park tornado because a nearby shopping mall, called Candlestick Park, was leveled by the storm. This was the deadliest, most dam-aging and longest track (202.5 miles) tor-nado in central Mississippi during the 20th century. It first touched down in Hinds County very near the hospital and moved northeast. The hospital was able to func-tion and treated a huge influx of patients from around the metro area.

“Less than six months after opening, the Candlestick Park tornado struck,” recalled Eugene G. Wood Jr., MD, with Merit Health Medical Group. “Hinds General Hospital played a crucial role in this catastrophic situation. Now known as Merit Health Central, the hospital contin-ues to provide excellent medical and surgi-cal care.”

Wood noted that when it was built, the hospital filled a vital hole that existed in the healthcare delivery system of Jack-

son in the mid-1960s.“I began a solo family practice in

southwest Jackson in October 1960, ap-proximately five years prior to the open-ing of Hinds General Hospital,” Wood noted recently. “I averaged two to three trips a day across town to various hospi-tals’ emergency departments for patients for lacerations, headaches, heart attacks or perhaps a panic attack. We had no ER physicians at that time.

“This sparkling new hospital provided a solution to the large amount of travel but more importantly, rapid access to medical care for persons from southwest Jackson, Raymond, Byram, Clinton and other sur-rounding areas.”

One of the tens of thousands of pa-tients who have benefitted from Merit Health Central over the years is Martha Long. She was the hospital’s 83rd patient and a patient of Dr. Wood.

“I have been a resident of Jackson since 1957, and it gives me such peace of mind having a hospital so close to home, particularly in the event of an emer-gency,” Long said. “My family and I con-sider Merit Health Central our hospital.”

Long is now giving back to the hos-pital by knitting hats for newborn babies. She started this labor of love back in Sep-tember last year and has already made over 300.

While the hospital has experienced leadership and name changes over the years, its core mission has not wavered: to

provide high quality, compassionate care in a safe environment. Merit Health Cen-tral’s leaders say they are committed to serving the healthcare needs of their com-munity and regularly consider how they can expand the services and resources they offer their patients to do so.

“We care for our entire community, including our most vulnerable residents, and provide medically necessary emer-gency care to those, who for various rea-sons, may struggle to access care,” said Lisa Dolan, interim chief executive offi-cer, Merit Health Central. “Last year, we provided approximately $61.5 million in charity and uncompensated care.”

This dedication to its community ex-tends beyond the walls of the medical fa-cility. As a taxpaying entity, Merit Health Central paid more than $12.1 million in state and local taxes to pay for services and infrastructure in the Jackson area and throughout the state.

Merit Health Central has grown over the past 50 years from a 26-bed hospital to a full-service healthcare provider with more than 450 beds. During that time, it has expanded its services across the healthcare spectrum, bringing high-qual-ity and technological advances to its pa-

tients, including some unique to the state and region.

“As our network of care has grown, there are many opportunities to benefit from the strengths and talents of our affili-ated facilities to better serve our patients and communities,” said Steve Dobbs, chief executive officer, Merit Health. “We continuously look for ways to improve ac-cess into the health system and meet the ever-changing healthcare needs of the communities we serve.”

As it prepares for its next half century of care, the staff of Merit Health Central plans to continue working together as the state’s largest healthcare network so it will be able to continue to respond quickly to changes and positively influence statewide healthcare issues.

As for its upcoming golden anni-versary, Merit Health Central plans to commemorate this milestone with all the residents from the area it serves.

“They are the reason we’re here today,” Dobbs said. “We invite our en-tire community to a special celebration on Thursday, Oct. 8, including our cur-rent and past patients, medical staff mem-bers, employees and community leaders to mark the occasion.”

50 Years of Caring, continued from page 1

Keep your finger on the pulse of Mississippi’s healthcare

industry at www.MississippiMedicalNews.com

m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m SEPTEMBER 2015 > 7

1965 – 1974On March 3, 1966, the

hospital survived an F5 tor-nado, dubbed the Candlestick Park (a shopping mall leveled by the storm) tornado.

In 1969, voters over-whelmingly approved an ex-pansion of the hospital with $5,500,000 in bonds to add 116 beds immediately and an additional 174 beds as needed. The emergency department, X-ray and lab were to be enlarged and a coronary care unit added.

1975 - 1984The six-story South tower addition

was completed in 1974 increasing the hos-pital’s capacity to over 450 beds.

1985 – 1994In August 1987 the hospital’s Cancer

Center opened offering radiation therapy and brachytherapy. The program has been accredited by the American College of Sur-geons Commission on Cancer since 1991.

In 1990 the hospital began serving as a holding unit for patients waiting for an available opening at the state’s behavioral hospital, for a maximum of 21 days. In April 1993, a 29-bed adult psychiatric unit opened.

1995 - 2004On Feb. 28, 1995, 30 years after the

opening of the hospital, the consecration and grand opening of a $35 million expan-sion was held. The 200,000-square-foot addition nearly doubled the hospital’s size and significantly expanded and enhanced the hospital’s capabilities. The new three-story building contained an Outpatient Center with registration, pre-admission testing, surgery, recovery, imaging and other services. Two new rooms in Same Day Surgery allow for minor procedures rather than in the main surgery depart-ment. Thirteen additional surgery rooms allowed for more flexibility in scheduling surgical procedures and a new endoscopy unit allowed the department to double in size. A new, larger maternity center in-cluded eight labor, delivery and recovery suites and a large Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and step-down nursery. An efficient new emergency department was included and adjacent to it a new outpatient radiol-ogy department with a separate Woman’s Center. A new chapel and much larger main lobby, dining room and gift shop were included in the expansion for the con-venience of patients and visitors.

In 1995 wound care services were added.

April 1, 1999, brought a new name, Central Mississippi Medical Center, often referred to as CMMC.

In 2001, the hospital opened the Rob-ert R. Smith, MD Gamma Knife Center, and was one of the first in the United States to receive the Gamma Knife Perfexion. To

date, the hospital still has and utilizes the only Gamma Knife in Mississippi. Despite its name, this instrument contains no blade and makes no incision. It’s used to treat brain disorders such as malignant and be-nign brain tumors, vascular malformations and trigeminal neuralgia.

In April 2002, the hospital opened phase one of a 47,000 square foot, $6.5 million medical office building. The build-ing served as a catalyst for improved access to care for the grown and expansion of the south Jackson medical community.

The hospital began offering bariatric surgery May 1, 2002. A medical weight management component was added in 2004 and the program was officially named the Comprehensive Weight Management Center in 2005. (The weight management program moved in 2011 to the hospital now known as Merit Health River Oaks.)

Summer-Fall 1996 - part of the movie A Time to Kill was filmed at the hospital in the old ER before it was renovated to the Education Hall.

2005 - PresentIn 2005, the second phase of the medi-

cal office building was completed, adding an additional 42,250 square feet to the fa-cility.

In September 2013, the Mississippi

Department of Health is-sued a certificate of need approving the move of the burn center from a sister Rankin County hospital to Central due rapid growth that created a need for more space and critical care.

That same year the hospital applied for and was granted a Certificate of Need for the expansion of 18 additional psychiatric

beds (for a total of 47). The newly reno-vated unit opened three months after being granted the CON.

Also in 2013, the Emergency Depart-ment was designated a Level III Trauma Center and was the first in Central Missis-sippi to open a dedicated Senior Track in the ER for persons 65 and older.

In 2013, Merit Health Central be-came a Certified Mammography Facility through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The hospital’s ACE (Acute Care for the Elderly) unit opened in October 2012 and gained NICHE (Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders) certifica-tion in 2013. The ACE unit is Central Mississippi’s first inpatient unit dedicated to improving the care of older patients in the hospital with a homelike environment. The unit is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of professionals who offer services to meet the unique medical, psychological, social and emotional needs of seniors. The hospital also received the NICHE (Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders) designation in late 2013.

In March 2014, a general surgeon on the hospital’s medical staff performed the first robot assisted vertical sleeve gastrec-tomy in Mississippi and the first robot as-sisted bariatric surgery (obesity surgery) in

Central Mississippi.On Oct. 16, 2014, the Joseph M. Still

Burn & Reconstruction Center was for-mally dedicated. The burn program treats children and adults and offers a 13-bed burn intensive care unit, 12 clinic rooms and a 20-bed step down unit with a treat-ment room. The center admitted nearly 1,000 patients and performed almost 2,000 surgical procedures last year. It is affiliated with the Joseph M. Still (JMS) Burn Centers Inc. in Augusta, Ga., the physician group that manages the largest burn facility in the U.S. The JMS Burn & Reconstruction Center is the state’s only designated burn center by the Mississippi State Department of Health and Mississippi Trauma Care System.

Most recently in 2015 Central’s bar-iatric program achieved national accredita-tion as a Comprehensive Bariatric Surgery Center by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Im-provement Program (MBSAQIP), a joint program of the American College of Sur-geons.

At the beginning of this year, the hos-pital was one of six in the Jackson/Vicks-burg area that formed a regional healthcare system, Merit Health (and that continue to be affiliated with Community Health Sys-tems). This spring, the network expanded to include all CHS-affiliated hospitals in Mississippi to create the largest healthcare system in the state by number of facilities. Most recently, affiliated hospitals in the Jack-son-Vicksburg area launched Merit Health Medical Group, a network of more than 30 physician practices in the market that, by sharing the same brand, makes it easier for patients to navigate the Merit Health family of healthcare providers. Together they are working to exchange best clinical practices, operate more efficiently, recruit new physi-cians, and improve access to care.

This was what Merit Health Central looked like circa mid-1970s when it was still Hinds General Hospital.

Key Events During the First Half Century of Service of Merit Health Central

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internist and partner in Medical Associ-ates Clinic, a multispecialty group practice with sites in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Sinsky is also the point person at the American Medical Association (AMA) for an ambitious new initiative offering phy-sicians strategies to re-vitalize their medical practices and improve patient care. The prac-tice changes she refer-ences are found in the initial 16 modules avail-able online – free for AMA and non-AMA members – via www.STEPSforward.org.

“If you can follow one or two rec-ommendations and go home earlier by reengineering the way you do your work, that’s a win-win all around,” said Sinsky.

The AMA took action to improve the lives of practicing physicians after a recent RAND survey showed the satisfac-tion physicians derive from their work is quickly eroding as time continues to be taken away from direct patient care be-cause of grueling, bureaucratic obstacles.

“Research shows that rates of overall burnout among U.S. physicians approach 40 percent,” said AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD. “That’s why the AMA is taking a hands-on approach to meeting their day-to-day concerns through the

new online series, AMA Steps Forward.”

Broadly, the 16 modules address four key areas: practice efficiency and patient care, patient health, physician health, and technology and in-novation.

Specifically, the modules cover these topics:

• Conducting effective team meetings• Creating strong team culture• Electronic health record (EHR)

implementation• EHR software selection and pur-

chase• Expanding rooming and discharge

protocols• Improving blood pressure control• Improving physician resiliency• Medication adherence• Panel management• Preventing physician burnout• Preventing type 2 diabetes in at-risk

patients• Pre-visit laboratory testing• Pre-visit planning• Starting lean healthcare• Synchronized prescription renewal• Team documentationEach module requires only snippets

of time to study either online or printed in PDF format for a more traditional ap-

proach to learning. Live events provide yet another learning option. To earn AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™, partici-pants must view the module content in its entirety, successfully complete the quiz answering four of five questions correctly, and complete the evaluation.

Modules include steps for implemen-tation, case studies and downloadable vid-eos, tools and resources.

“Within 30 minutes, physicians will know how to take the next step in their practices to work smarter, not harder,” said Sinsky.

For example, the module on effec-tive team meetings begins with a 10-step process:

• Identify the team.• Meet routinely and “on the clock.”• Agree on ground rules.• Set a consistent meeting agenda.• Rotate meeting roles.• Solve problems as a group.• Record action steps, owners and

due dates.• Practice good meeting skills.• Have fun!• Celebrate success.Under ground rules, helpful hints in-

clude starting and ending each meeting on time, being fully present in the moment, staying on topic, focusing on the issue and not the individual, stepping up or back as needed, and giving thanks to the staff for

their time. To stay on topic and maintain efficiency during the dedicated meeting time, it’s suggested that: “if the discussion wanders, the chair or other member can say, ‘Let’s take that offline,’ or ‘that sounds like an issue to put in the “parking lot” to talk about at another meeting.’ If the dis-cussion strays, there may not be time at the end of the meeting for all the items on the agenda.”

In October, 10 modules will be added to the website. By the end of 2016, the AMA plans to have up to 50 modules available online.

Concurrently with the rollout, the AMA and the Medical Group Manage-ment Association (MGMA) issued a prac-tice innovation challenge, seeking more high-value, easy-to-adopt, and transfor-mative medical practice solutions. Pro-posals were submitted through Sept. 1; the best solutions were eligible for one of several $10,000 prizes, in addition to hav-ing the ideas developed into future STEPS Forward modules. Winners will be an-nounced at MGMA’s annual conference Oct. 11-14 in Nashville, Tenn.

“We issued the innovation challenge to tap into the creative energy that we know is present among physicians,” said Sinsky. “The goal is to help physicians take better care of themselves and their practices so they can, in turn, take better care of their patients.”

The AMA Steps Up with STEPS Forward, continued from page 1

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By CINDy SANDERS

According to statistics from the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 68 children falls somewhere on the autism spectrum.

The fastest-growing developmen-tal disorder in the United States, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is almost five times more common in boys (1 in 42) than girls (1 in 189). Additionally, the CDC es-timates it costs at least $17,000 more per year to care for a child with autism, in-cluding extra expenditures for healthcare, education and ASD-related therapy.

While there is still no cure for ASD, research has shown early intervention can have a significant impact on a child’s development and ability to more fully interact with peers at school. It’s at this intersection of education and healthcare where Educational Services of America (ESA) offers resources to help these chil-dren thrive.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., the company currently provides services in 27 states. “We serve about 17,000 kids a day, and they have a very wide variety of disabilities,” explained ESA President and CEO Mark Clay-pool, who founded the company in 1999. “We work primarily with public school systems,” he said, noting the com-pany partners with about 250 different systems. He added ESA also works directly with some state governments and insurance carriers.

“Providing quality services to chil-dren and young adults who need them is more important to us than who pays the bill,” Claypool stated.

While ESA, which has about 3,000 employees nationwide, has been in busi-ness for more than 15 years, Claypool said many of the programs being used have been around much longer with mea-surable results. The company has grown significantly through acquisitions and mergers, including the purchase three years ago of South Carolina-based Early Autism Project, Inc. (EAP).

“We had been working with older kids through school systems for a long time, but we wanted to identify a strong provider in the early intervention space,” Claypool explained. “Autism is a very dy-namic disability, and the sooner you can intervene, the greater the impact on the child’s life.”

With EAP, he noted, “We acquired this really strong regional brand and put tremendous resources behind them.” Today, EAP reaches four times the num-ber of children and continues to expand with additional clinics coming online at a rapid pace. Currently, there are clinics and/or in-home services being provided in 11 states including Arkansas, Florida,

Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee in the Southeast.

“We’re growing very rapidly,” Clay-pool said. “In fact, we’re in the process of opening 15 new autism clinics in the next year.”

Applied BehaviorAt the heart of the program is the use

of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). “We know the evidence supports ABA as the most effective treatment, by far,” said Claypool. “It enhances positive behaviors and diminishes negative behaviors.”

According to the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, the effectiveness of this evidence-based therapy has been well documented over the past 40 years. ABA utilizes the principles of learning theory to craft interventions designed to measurably improve ‘socially significant behaviors,’ which include reading, aca-demics, social skills, communication, and adaptive living skills including self-care, toileting, understanding time and money, and honing work skills.

“The same model of behavioral ther-apy is applied to all of our children across the board but will vary in its intensity,” Claypool explained of addressing indi-vidual needs depending on where a child falls on the spectrum.

Finding a way to help these children is critical considering the number of chil-dren diagnosed with ASD. “If we don’t do this, the cost will be staggering. These young people will not be able to transi-tion to adulthood and lead normal adult lives,” Claypool pointed out.

With ABA therapy, however, he said the team has seen some remarkable out-comes. “There is no one type of child with autism. There are IQs all over the board, but many do have high IQs and need to

have their potential unlocked,” he contin-ued.

That was certainly true for one South Carolina mom. Told it would be best to find her son a residential program because he would never function on his own, she took matters into her own hands and became the co-founder of the Early Autism Project. Today, that son is working on his master’s degree at the University of South Carolina and speaks eight languages.

While certainly not every child with autism will perform at that level, Clay-pool said all children deserve the chance to reach their own potential.

The Intersection of Healthcare & Education

Realizing that ability, however, can be more difficult in some states than in others.

Claypool explained Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires public school systems to identify preschool children with special needs. However, he added, “It’s very, very loose how to do that. Frankly, it’s not followed through on very often. That issue really drove parents who had chil-dren with autism to find another way to have their children identified, diagnosed and treated.”

Of importance, he continued, is the understanding that special education, as it is constructed, is built on civil rights law.

“That’s important because it was built on a minimum set of services defined as ‘free and appropriate.’

“But that’s not enough for parents,” Claypool said. “They want progress, and they want to know their child is going to get the very best treatments.” Therefore, he continued, “More and more, they are looking to healthcare rather than educa-tion systems to bridge the gap.”

According to the Autism Health In-surance Project, 39 states plus the District of Columbia have now enacted autism insurance mandates, meaning all fully funded, state-regulated insurance plans must provide the benefits specified by law. While the specifics vary from state-to-state, each of the mandates requires insurers to provide ABA to young chil-dren with autism. Self-funded (employer-sponsored) plans, however, are not legally required to offer autism benefits even in states that have mandates.

As of May 2015, Alabama, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wyoming had no autism insurance mandate. Ohio, Hawaii, Mississippi and North Carolina were in process of en-acting a mandate, and Utah had passed legislation, but it won’t go into effect until 2016. Additionally, the federal gov-ernment has recently told all states their Medicaid programs must offer ABA therapy for children under 21, but only a handful of states have put this directive into action at this point.

At the Intersection of Education and Healthcare

Mark Claypool

For More Info & ReferralsFor more information on autism and other programming by Educational

Services of America, go online to esa-education.com. For more information or to refer a child with autism to EAP, go to earlyautismproject.com.

S k i l l e d H a n d s . C o m pa s s i o n at e H e a rt s .

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“Whether the electronic connection with the patient is via email, text messaging, or video conference, the platform should be secure,” he said. “Private and confidential patient information is being transmitted and the patient has a legal right to protect the information in transit.”

The Federation of State and Board Telemedicine (FSMB) Guidelines spe-cifically state: “Physicians should meet or exceed applicable federal and state require-ments of medical/health information pri-vacy, including compliance with HIPAA and state privacy, confidentiality, security, and medical retention rules,” said Sacopu-los, adding that FSMB Guidelines suggest maintaining written policies to address:

• Privacy; • Healthcare personnel who will be

processing messages and patient communications;

• Hours of operations; • Types of transactions that will be per-

mitted electronically; • Required patient information to

be included in the communication, such as patient’s name, identification number and type of transaction;

• Archival and retrieval; and • Quality oversight mechanisms. “Finally, telemedicine practitioners are

cautioned to periodically evaluate their poli-cies and procedures to insure they remain current and readily accessible,” he said. “FSMB informs us that electronic com-munications received from patients must

be maintained within secured technology password-protected encrypted electronic prescriptions, or other reliable authentica-tion and techniques.”

Sacopulos said it’s reasonable to as-sume that additional patient privacy re-quirements will be coming in the near future.

“This well may be in reaction to large scale breaches, such as Anthem Insurance experienced earlier this year,” he said. “Studies show that medical identity theft grew at an alarming rate in 2014. Govern-ment officials, including the FBI and Cali-fornia Attorney General, have specifically cautioned medical providers that their pa-tients’ electronic data is at risk for hacking and theft. All of this should serve as a warn-ing to telemedicine providers to comply with existing state and federal regulations. Telemedicine providers should also antici-pate increasing privacy standards.”

Informed ConsentBefore practicing telemedicine, a medi-

cal provider should obtain appropriate patient informed consent. The informed consent document should:

Clearly state the patient’s identity; Clearly state the physician’s identity

and qualifications; Specify the scope of activities the prac-

tice will be using telemedicine technologies to fulfill, such as patient education, prescrip-tion refills, and scheduling appointments;

The patient must acknowledge that it is

within the medical provider’s sole discretion to determine if the available telemedicine technologies are adequate to diagnose and/or treat the patient;

The patient should acknowledge the possibility of, and hold harmless the medical provider for, any technology failures and/or interruptions;

The practice should, as part of the informed consent process, provide infor-mation on the telemedicine technologies privacy and security standards, such as the inscription of data and firewalls; and

The informed consent document should specify express patient consent to forward patient information to a third party if necessary.

Referrals for Emergency Service

“The FSMB suggests that telemedi-cine practitioners have a written protocol in the event that a remote patient needs emergency services,” said Sacopulos. “This emergency protocol should cover possible scenarios when patients require acute care. How and where referrals are to be made should be covered in this protocol.”

State-Specific RequirementsThe scope of permissible telemedicine

varies significantly by state. Some states specifically require a physician/patient re-lationship to be established first in person with an exam and diagnosis and treatment plan, including prescriptions. Only then may telemedicine be conducted.

“Telemedicine is receiving much atten-tion at the moment,” said Sacopulos. “The American Medical Association is in the pro-cess of adopting a Code of Ethics for physi-cians who provide clinical services through telemedicine. Texas has recently issued new telemedicine guidelines to its practitioners. All of this should serve as a warning to those interested in telemedicine to consult with their State Board of Medicine before engaging in telemedicine activities.”

Telemedicine, continued from page 5

reasons that remain unclear. Identifying early markers of at-risk individuals could significantly impact the public health bur-den of cerebrovascular disease in all ethnic groups, the researchers said.

“People don’t routinely have MRIs, but when they’re necessary, taking note of these small lesions could provide valu-able information about future risk,” Wind-ham said. “It’s similar to knowing about a patient’s history of high blood pressure or family history of heart disease. It may influence treatment decisions.”

In addition to researchers from UMMC, the study was co-authored by scientists from Johns Hopkins University, University of Washington Medical Cen-ter, Mayo Clinic, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The findings were published in the July 7, 2015 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The study was funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood In-stitute of the National Institutes of Health.

Discovery, continued from page 4

m i s s i s s i p p i m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m SEPTEMBER 2015 > 11

GrandRounds

SBJ Announces New Foot And Ankle Specialist

Southern Bone and Joint Specialists, P.A. has announced its newest physician, Rob Robertson, MD, fellowship trained foot and ankle specialist.

Robertson, a Mag-nolia native, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missis-sippi where he was team captain of the football team. He received his MD the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. He completed an orthopedic residency from the University of Missis-sippi School of Medicine where he re-ceived the Department of Orthopedics OITE Award. Robertson completed a fel-lowship in foot and ankle from Medstar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Md.

He is a member of the American Or-thopedic Foot and Ankle Society, Ameri-can Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and Mississippi Orthopedic Society.

Robertson joins SBJ’s Dr. John Kos-ko as the only fellowship-trained foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons in the Pine Belt area.

Southern Bone and Joint is an or-thopaedic group with 18 physicians and offices in Hattiesburg, Collins, Columbia, Laurel and Picayune.

Anderson Introduces New Lung Cancer Screening

Physicians at Anderson Regional

Medical Center are making a difference when it comes to lung cancer detection. Lung cancer is often left undiagnosed until the late stages when it may have spread to other areas, but a new low dose CT lung screening is helping many patients have a better outcome.

Once a person develops symptoms of lung cancer, the five-year survival rate is only 5-14 percent. This screening will help diagnose the cancer much earlier and increase the chance for survival ac-cording to Dr. Fred Duggan, Pulmonolo-gist.

Candidates for the low dose CT screening are individuals 55-77 years old with a significant smoking history and no symptoms. A significant smoking history includes those who are current smokers, as well as individuals who have quit smoking within the last 15 years with a smoking history equal to a pack a day for 30 years or two packs a day for 15 years. Most insurance companies cover the screening for patients who meet the criteria.

During the screening, a radiological technologist scans the patient’s chest to generate a 3-D image of the lungs. No medications are given and no needles are used. Patients may eat before and after the screen, and the screening only takes about 15 minutes.

A physician referral is required for the screening, so patients are encour-aged to ask their doctor for more infor-mation.

Dr. Rob Robertson

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Memorial Stroke Program Receives Gold Plus RecognitionFor the sixth year, Memorial has received the American Heart and American

Stroke Association Gold Plus recognition. The Gold Plus recognition goes to a hospi-tal achieving 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With the Guidelines® Stroke Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12 month intervals. The hospital must also achieve at least 12 consecutive months of 75 percent or higher compliance with five or more Get with the Guidelines® Stroke Quality measures. Those measures improve quality of patient care and outcomes. Memorial has maintained Gold Plus status for Get With the Guidelines® since 2010.

Hospitals are recognized on the Target: Stroke Honor Roll for achieving 50 percent or greater for at least one calendar quarter on the following Get with the Guidelines-Stroke PMT measure: percent of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV rt-PA with door-to-needle times ≤ 60 minutes. Memorial received the Target: Stroke Honor Roll in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Katie Schussler, Memorial Stroke Program Coordinator; Ashley Joyner, Memorial Neuroscience Care Coordinator; Earl C. Coleman, Quality Improvement Director, AHA Get with the Guidelines; Dr. Lee Voulters, Memorial Medical Director Stroke Program; Christine LeBeouf, Vice President American Heart Association; Sonya Kortens, Memorial Neuroscience Care Coordinator and Elizabeth Williams, Health Strategies Assistant, American Heart Association.

Memorial Hospital Summer 2015

2005–2015 Decade of Growth

Building A Better

Memorial

A massive infrastructure project on the main

campus of Memorial Hospital added floors 6 and 7

to our Main Patient Tower. Recently completed are

new, modern patient rooms (pictured above). The new

clinical operational layout has nearly 50% more space

than the previous rooms; includes overhead bariatric

hoists; and allows greater flexiblity for critical care

and future needs.

A new $6 million state-of-the-art larger neonatal

intensive care unit (NICU) with 11 semi-private rooms

and 23 beds was completed this summer. Offering the

only NICU on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Memorial

provides a specially equipped ground transport

vehicle for acutely ill or potentially unstable infants

from surrounding communities.

4500 Thirteenth Street / Post Office Box 1810 / Gulfport, MS 39502-1810

Memorial Hospital and Physician Clinics accept all major insurances and payers. www.gulfportmemorial.com

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