This week's open letter is intended to help the community better understand some of the changes currently taking place at North Mississippi Medical Center. As organizations strive to move from good to great to world class, changes in organization structure are oftentimes needed. Systems and processes that have served them well in the past may need to change in order to achieve continually increasing levels of success. We are at that point in our organization as we make the transition to a service line organization structure.

Recent changes to NMMC's senior leadership team are designed to accomplish the following:
• Reduce the layers of management in order to reduce bureaucracy
• Increase the decision-making authority of those closest to the patients (employee empowerment)
• Increase physician input and feedback
• Increase patient satisfaction
• Enhance the quality of care provided.
In other words, we're attempting to transition the organization from having a "financial" focus to a "patient-centered" focus.

With service lines, it is important that the support areas are correctly positioned with the service line leadership team. We are currently working with our medical staff leaders and seeking their input into the service line team development and selection of service line administrators.

Chuck Stokes, the newly hired president of NMMC-Tupelo, has a strong background with service line organizations. He will be instrumental in the development and implementation of the service line structure. The various service line administrators will report directly to him.

All of these changes are designed to position the organization to achieve the "world class" status we have set out to achieve. One of the disadvantages to change is rumors. We would like to clarify and hopefully dispel some of the rumors currently circulating. First, we are not planning a massive layoff throughout the organization. Here are the facts, our volume at the main Tupelo campus is down and our staffing is up. As a result, our financial performance is not where it needs to be. Our plan is to get our staffing back in line with volumes through a measured, calculated, careful management of our overtime, vacant positions, and filling of future vacated positions. This does not mean there is a hiring freeze or that we are going to short staff clinical areas critical to the care we provide, nor does it mean that there is a ban on overtime. What it does mean is that we will carefully evaluate our departmental staffing levels and make sure we have appropriate staffing.

We also would like to clarify some confusion concerning NMMC's school nurse program, a valuable community activity that NMHS and the Health Care Foundation of North Mississippi are proud to be able to fund and support. No changes are planned at this time. Given the changing nature of health care reimbursement, this does not mean that future changes won't be necessary, but for the time being, that program will not be a focus of our efforts. If changes do become necessary in the future, we will be sure to engage school and community officials before any changes are made.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve your health care needs. NMMC offers a toll-free hotline staffed with community advocates to respond to concerns, questions or compliments. Callers are encouraged to call 1-800-453-7533, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. You may also contact us via e-mail by logging onto our Website at www.nmhs.net/contact_us .

 

August 21, 2005