UMMC issued the following statement.
A new affiliation between Oktibbeha County Hospital Regional Medical Center in Starkville and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson will strengthen and expand health care services in Starkville and the Golden Triangle.
The affiliation, announced June 26, brings the medical education, research and advanced health care offerings of Mississippi’s only academic medical center to OCH, a 96-bed, progressive rural hospital with a medical staff of more than 70 representing 20 medical specialties.
“Since January, our board, medical staff and administrative team have worked together on this affiliation process,” said Richard Hilton, outgoing OCH administrator and CEO. “Our goal was to find the best fit for not only our hospital and employees, but also for our patients and this community, and we feel that we’ve found that with UMMC at this time.”
Expanded access to state-of-the-art care will enable more area residents to stay home for treatment, said Kevin Cook, chief executive officer of the UMMC Health System. “Our vision for the affiliation is to ensure OCH is the center of a vibrant and viable medical community for many years to come,” Cook said.
OCH, with more than 600 employees, is the first facility in northeast Mississippi to offer digital mammography. Its services include the daVinci SI Robot advanced surgical system. Offerings also include a free-standing fitness facility, cardiac rehabilitation, diabetes management, and a pulmonary wellness rehabilitation department providing physical, occupational and speech therapy.
OCH operates 10 clinics: a family medical clinic in Ackerman and nine clinics in Starkville offering services including breast health and imaging, lung and sleep care, pain management, sleep medicine, general surgery, orthopedics, wound healing and hyperbaric care, and family medicine.
The working relationship allows OCH to enhance its strong medical staff, expand its health care services, and improve access to treatment through UMMC’s medical and educational outreach. It allows UMMC to improve and expand the quality of its educational training programs and its research contributions.
OCH’s Board of Trustees chose UMMC after the Medical Center and two other hospital systems submitted proposals for affiliation earlier this year.
“I’ve been following this process and know that the trustees have carefully considered what each system has to offer, and I’m very supportive of the decision they’ve made,” said OCH administrator and CEO Jim Jackson, announced as OCH’s new leader on June 25. “I respect UMMC, and we look forward to working with them in this mutually beneficial relationship as we continue to improve patient care in our community.”
“Now that Mr. Jackson has come on board, he will be able to take this decision and implement what has been put together,” Hilton said.
The affiliation will give UMMC the opportunity to expand educational training programs for Mississippi practitioners by placing medical residents and fellows at OCH, where they will deliver patient care in concert with the hospital’s medical staff.
“Our new affiliation with OCH is an excellent opportunity for our residents and faculty physicians to bring the resources of the state’s only academic medical center to the Golden Triangle,” said Dr. Charles O’Mara, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and professor of vascular surgery.
UMMC also enjoys affiliations with Anderson Hospital in Meridian, Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Kingfish note: OCH was a victim of an attempted takeover attempt, I meant attempted sale by the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors (with the help of Lord Snow) to MBMC last fall. Voters rejected the proposed sale at the polls.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Oktibbeha County Hospital Affiliates with UMMC
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16 comments:
Waiting from some brain-numb Grove-Imbecile to declare this some sort of Ole Myth encroachment into Starkpatch. Wait for it.
Hope this is more fruitful than the Grenada acquisition.
In all fairness The University of Mississippi is handing out degrees in engineering. Those pieces of paper are on par with a juris doctorate in medicine from MSU.
Best medical advice I can give anyone in Starkville:
You are roughly equal distance between UMMC and UAB.
Drive east.
Interesting your comment about Lord Snow. Butler Snow represents UMMC as lobbyist and legal counsel.
KF - would you have objected to the sale of OCH is it had been assisted by any other legal firm? Of course a law firm would have to be involved in such a transaction - and BS is certainly a qualified firm to do it.
While you may deride the push to sale the hospital because of your hatred of anything associated with BS, selling this facility would have been one of the best things that could have happened to the citizens of Starkville and Oktibbeha County. The hospital is hemmoraging cash, providing totally inadequate and incompetent service, and the sale would have provided a big cash infusion to the county. Instead, we now have this "merger" that hopefully would at least increase the quality of medical care - which of course the sale would have done because the various suitors were all hospitals of the UMMC quality or above - but the county does not benefit from the ongoing ownership or the profits from the sale.
Why did the voters fight and defeat the sale - its the same thing as your favorite flavor of the day - Jackson Public Schools. It was a job issue to the local folks. How many people the LOCAL hospital employed; your aunts, cousins, neighbors, etc. How many jobs would be lost if it were run efficiently. That the money would be moved out of the county (as if now the money won't be moved to Woodrow Wilson and N State).
But - as you say, "Lord Snow was involved, therefore it was a terrible deal that there was an attempt to hijack it last year".
Well BCBS customers in Starkville walked into little or no coverage.
Oops
BS does not represent UMMC. It’s true a former partner became in house counsel....and they may do various projects....but UMMC has its own lawyers for most matters.
UMMC could not pay BS rates
And can UMMC enumerate any accomplishments from their "collaboration" with the Mayo Clinic that was announced 10 or 15 years ago? The Mayo Clinic is still world class...
And what exactly is UMMC contributing to the partnership (?), collaboration (?), with Vanderbilt? Within VUMC I haven't met a single physician or scientist who even knows UMMC and VUMC announced some kind of arrangement earlier this year.
@7:58 - "The hospital is hemorrhaging cash, providing totally inadequate and incompetent service. We now have this 'merger' that hopefully would at least increase the quality of medical care."
No wonder OCH wanted to affiliate with UMMC, what a perfect fit.
10:30
She just can't believe they lost
;-)
Hospitals are losing power in recent years with surgeons building out patient centers. However hospitals will always receive the sickly patients that must stay over night. Outpatient centers can only take a patient for less than 24 hrs. Merger makes plenty of Sense considering the circumstance. Only in Mississippi would one worry about Ole miss having a presence in Starkville. Most of the physicians could give a flip as well as the higher educated population. Neither university is well respected outside of the state. Maybe I'm being a NE Jackson snob that went to Georgetown and Universty of Miami.
Can we use BCBS insurance there?
It's very clear that most of you do not understand what collaboration with another hospital means.
One example would be that you can get be part of clinical trials not offered by your local hospital and so you won't have to leave home for weeks or months to be treated.
Frankly, all local hospitals should be collaborating with teaching hospitals in their State and all the teaching hospitals should be collaborating with each other.
LOL these comments from people that ring cow bells are a hoot.
Why does every article posted have to include people writing about cow bells, hotty toddy, football etc... Jesus, give it a rest. The obsecion with college football rather than academics are possibly a reason Mississippi is near the bottom in many areas. Focus on $#it that matters like jobs and education as well as trade schools. I can tell you the poor/lower income patients I encounter all obsess about college sports. The financially successfully families focus on education.
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