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Southwest Regional’s timeline 6 | SMRMC | 2019
1969
1975
1985
1988
Southwest General Hospital opens
Emergency services pass test in response to deadly tornado
Administrator Norman Price begins work at Southwest
Ambulatory Surgery Center opens
50 years of serving
1993
1998
2001
2002
2003
2009
2013
Five-story main building expansion opens
Mississippi Cancer Institute opens
Lawrence County Hospital acquired
St. Luke Home Health acquired
Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi opens
Emergency room and south tower expanded
St. Luke adds hospice service
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The Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi, next to the main building, opened in 2003.
First, a hospital. Now, a regional medical center No one could have predicted Southwest’s growth since 1969
o look back at the 50-year history of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, let’s start in an old-timey one-room medical clinic in the rural wilds of Amite County. No, that’s not the original site of the hospital. It’s the place where Southwest Health System Medical Director Dr. Henry L. Lewis III hangs out in his very limited spare time, and where he is going to reminisce about Southwest’s history.
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But the setting is apt since it was the clinic of Lewis’ grandfather, Dr. Henry L. Lewis Sr., in the first half of the 20th century. And it illustrates how far medicine has come in southwest Mississippi. Inside, Lewis, 81, is sipping Community dark roast coffee from his Keurig machine and
listening to bluegrass music – “You Don’t Love Your Neighbor If You Don’t Love God” by Rhonda Vincent. He likes the song’s vocals, the riffs – and the lyrics, which pretty much sum up the philosophy of Southwest Medical Center: “If he gets into trouble, and you don't try to help him, Then you don’t love your neighbor and you don't love God.” Originally from Amite County, Lewis started his medical practice in Magnolia in 1967, two years before Southwest opened in 1969. He became involved with Southwest in the mid-1970s when he was asked to work è
shifts in the emergency room. As the hospital grew, so did the number of ER patients, and doctors were finding themselves swamped. “They found out that they could not take calls at night and (treat) inpatients and ER,” Lewis said. He moonlighted nights and weekends. In 1979 he moved his practice to McComb – the second best thing that ever happened to him, the first being marrying his wife Betty, he said. “We started getting more and more specialties at the new hospital,” Lewis said, citing OB/GYN, eye, earnose-throat, internal medicine, gastroenterology, orthopedics. There was also physical growth. When Lewis started at Southwest, the building was “minute compared with today,” he said. “The first extension was moving out of the tiny little emergency room on the south side,” he said. “The hospital is
Dr. Henry Lewis has watched Southwest Regional’s services expand since the 1970s.
more than twice the size it was then. The ER was a small, small place.” The hospital added a double-wide trailer to serve as emergency room for a time. “Most of my tenure in the emergency room was in that double-wide,” Lewis said. “We got busier and busier, and it became obvious we
needed board-certified ER doctors as they became a specialty.” The hospital took a blow in 1984 when an audit uncovered major financial problems, leading to the departure of the then-administrator. Bill Hewitt served as interim administrator as the board interviewed for a new one.
Norman Price, who became administrator in 1985, was the perfect choice, Lewis said. “We didn’t have any trouble picking him,” Lewis said. Price avoided the limelight, as evidenced by where he chose to have his office. “Norman had his in the back to shine the light all over the hospital and to show the hospital like it needed to be shown,” he said. Lewis recalled discussing expansion plans with Price early on. “We were looking at the north end of the hospital when Norman got there, and there was a hole down deep, and he said, ‘This is where medical records and administrative offices need to be, and above that, ambulatory surgery,’ ” Lewis said. è
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The outpatient facility was the first of what would be many expansions of medical care in McComb. In 2015 the wing was named the Norman M. Price Ambulatory Surgery Center. “The expansion of medical services in southwest Mississippi was due to Norman Price,” Lewis said. “In fact, the whole medical center ought to be named after Norman. “Norman has done more than any of us in his contribution to medicine in southwest Mississippi today.” Price lived up to the four requirements of a great general: be frugal without diminished capacity, be congenial without familiarity, lead without ostentation, and have strength without pretense, Lewis said, citing the book “A.P. Hill: Lee’s Forgotten General.” “That’s where we owe all these services that we didn’t have before Norman came. That’s been his M.O.: provide all the medical services that we need to have and deserve to have to maintain the life of our community,” Lewis said. The hospital continued to grow, adding the Mississippi Cancer Institute in 1998, acquiring Lawrence County Hospital and St. Luke Home Health in 2001-02, building the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi in 2004, expanding the emergency room in 2009, adding hospice services in 2013 and installing a pharmacy in the lobby in 2017. Technology improved as well, including CTs, MRIs, PET scans and diagnostic imaging. All of that succeeded in “expanding our capacity to take care of people in Pike County and the surrounding area, including the Florida parishes of Louisiana, without them having to travel more than a 100-mile radius,” Lewis said. The opening of the cancer institute in 1998 was a huge 10 | SMRMC | 2019
advancement for local residents – including Lewis himself. “My father would come home from Jackson, and Mom would have to stop and let him vomit on the way home from his metastatic prostate cancer before he died,” Lewis recalled. “It’s good to be able to do it (treatment) at home.” The same is true of the Cardiovascular Institute. “If things are equal, it’s far better for your cardiologist to live where your heart lives, and for your gastroenterologist to live where your gut lives,” Lewis said. The heart institute is a lifesaver, said Lewis, who underwent bypass surgery there in 2005. “Of everything in your torso, your heart can take you out quicker than anything,” he said. The expansion of the sixth floor, including a public meeting room and cafeteria, has meant a lot for the community as well. “We let entities beyond the hospital all the time come in and use that facility. It’s good P.R. and it’s a good service for the community. We named it after Carl Haskins,” Lewis said. “Carl Haskins was a valuable member of the board. He was an icon in the community and a great member of the board of trustees.” Medicine has come a long way since Lewis’ grandfather opened his one-room clinic in 1902. And Southwest has come a long way since it opened in 1969. “Medicine is a lot better these days,” Lewis said. “Back in the ’60s when I was on call, if I couldn’t save them, they died. It was all on me. Now there’s a whole team to look after you.” nnn Not all highlights of the hospital’s history involve improvements. Some involved sheer drama – such as the è
tornado of 1975 and the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash of 1977. Those incidents spring to mind for Renan Richmond, the president of the hospital board of trustees. He went to work for the hospital in 1972 setting up computer systems and retired in 1999 as administrative assistant. When he started, the hospital had 72 beds – less than half the current number – and the fifth and sixth floors weren’t complete. Southwest was also continuing to operate the old McComb City Hospital downtown, and Renan made visits there each morning. On the morning of Jan. 10, 1975, he left the City Hospital at 8:15 and headed back to Southwest. “When I got to the stoplight at Delaware, all of a sudden it was gone. I looked up and saw the tornado,” he said. A metal sign sailed past his windshield, just missing it. He quickly drove to the hos-
Renan Richmond has been involved with Southwest Regional since 1972.
pital. “Immediately I saw we had lost total communications with the power,” he said. “I said, ‘At least we have the National Guard.’ I looked out front and the armory was gone.” The tornado killed nine people, and destroyed 84 homes and 30 businesses. Southwest treated 119 people that day. Medical personnel
sprang to action whether on or off duty or even retired. “Everybody pitched in and helped,” Richmond said. “We were sewing up patients in the hallway. A good dentist friend of mine was suturing someone.” The hospital itself sustained no major damage, but it had just one generator for when
the power went out. Now it has five and can remain in full operation. There was no water, either, and medical personnel had to use portable military water bags. Now the hospital has its own water well. Richmond credits Price for seeing to it that the hospital can continue to function independently in such crises. Nearly two years after the tornado, another memorable disaster occurred – the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. Ironically, it took place just a couple of weeks after hospital personnel underwent disaster training for a simulated plane crash west of town. On the night of Oct. 20, 1977, Richmond was on administrative call and was at a junior high school ball game along with the head nurse è
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of surgery and three doctors. Richmond was summoned to the press box and told of the plane crash near Gillsburg. “One doctor said, ‘I’m tired of these damn drills.’ I said, ‘Doctor, this is not a drill,’ ” Richmond said. Richmond called a National Guard commander in Jackson to ask for help. He requested two helicopters, a heavy-duty vehicle and six men, which the commander promptly approved, along with a Coast Guard helicopter. “We used the north parking lot where the heart center is to bring these people in,” Richmond said. The crash killed six people, and the bodies were initially brought inside the hospital and covered. “I’d never heard of Lynyrd Skynyrd,” Richmond said of the rock group. “I got calls that night from Sydney, Australia, London, a couple of other countries, and people asked was Lynyrd killed.” n
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Price is a rural CEO to know Becker’s Healthcare has recognized Norman Price, leader of Southwest Health System, as one of 60 rural hospital CEOs to know in 2019. Price is the leader of an integrated healthcare delivery network, comprised of the hospital, a cardiovascular institute, a cancer institute, an ambulatory surgery center and a number of other services. Southwest Regional’s 165 beds serve patients from a wide area, and its emergency services are classified as a Level 3 trauma center. n
This is a 1967 architectural drawing of the building that would transform medical care in Southwest Mississippi.
In the beginning The story of how Southwest came to be is worth repeating
This is an abbreviated version of a 1994 Enterprise-Journal article on the origins of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center. Written for the hospital’s 25th anniversary, it includes interviews with the late Norman B. Gillis Jr. and the late Newton James. 14 | SMRMC | 2019
he red bricks of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center are such a fixture that it is difficult for many to recall local health care conditions before the hospital opened in 1969. The hospital’s construction represented not only a dramatic improvement in the region's medicine, but a huge boon to the economy. Yet its genesis came only after a bitter 15-year struggle that often pitted friend against friend, è
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Norman Gillis Jr., holding the shovel, was among many community leaders at the hospital’s groundbreaking in 1968.
political faction against political faction. And its subsequently prosperous history ground to a halt in 1984 when a well-publicized, critical state audit almost brought the place to its knees. Under administrator Norman Price, Southwest is today running full-steam ahead, according to prominent local figures. That was not always the case, however. “We didn’t have a single approved hospital bed in McComb,” says McComb attorney Norman B. Gillis Jr. of the pre-Southwest era. He adds that there were only 12 doctors in McComb, and only three were specialists – one gynecologist and two ear, nose and throat MD’s. “Of course, there was no
chance we were going to get any new ones,” Gillis says. There was no intensive care ward for heart patients. There was no true emergency room, just a skeletal version of one. No anesthesiologists, just nurse anesthetists. No physical therapy. No inhalation therapy. No mental health facilities. No drug or alcoholism treatment centers. “To get an ambulance, you’d call the funeral home,” Gillis says, adding that they’d provide a hearse to take you to Jackson or New Orleans if there wasn’t a funeral going on. “They weren’t equipped as emergency care units as we have now,” says Gillis. A patient would be lucky if the hearse had an IV unit rigged to the ceiling. The symbolism of riding in
a hearse was probably not too comforting, either. Gillis recalls tales of people dying while trying to raise $30,000 to buy a kidney dialysis machine. “Here is the peculiar situation. With things in that shape, there was no possibility for us to grow economically,” he says. Given such conditions, choosing to construct a medical center to serve the region would seem to be a nobrainer, but powerful residents held the idea in check for 15 years, says Gillis and former McComb Mayor Newton H. James, a fellow advocate for the hospital. “People who had given their lives giving medical service to the area had vested financial interests that made it
difficult or impossible to support the hospital,” says James, diplomatically. The struggle between hospital proponents and their opposition was bitter, contentious, and occasionally came to blows. “There was opposition to this hospital of such significance and magnitude that it took us about six years of court battles, two elections and we even had to redistrict the county,” says Gillis. The idea for a regional medical center first surfaced when two McComb men, J. Gordon Roach Sr. and Johnny Lewis, went to Jackson in 1954 to get federal HillBurton funds for a regional public hospital, says James. Nothing came of it, and the idea floated around until è 2019 | SMRMC | 15
Southwest Regional was already growing by the time of this photo in 1981.
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things began to coalesce again in the early 1960s under the leadership of men such as Gillis, James, businessman Thomas D. Magruder Sr. and McComb banker Warren Wild. A 15-man committee was formed to push for the hospital, Gillis says. But opponents stood in the way. One had a lot of influence on the county board of supervisors. The supervisors put up constant roadblocks to building a public hospital, say the two men. Not until Gillis filed a lawsuit – with his father, Norman B. Gillis Sr., and James listed as plaintiffs – to redistrict the county did the board stand down. Under the old layout, the five districts were based not on population, but on the number of road miles in each district. So the fourth district, comprising McComb and Summit, had only one of five votes on the board but a huge amount of the county
Norman Gillis Jr., left, and Newton James were two of the strongest advocates for a new hospital.
population. Gillis recalls that 75 percent of Pike County residents lived in the fourth district; James remembers 40 percent. “We filed the lawsuit and we won,” says James. “We got the attention of the board of supervisors,” says Gillis. Political and legal obstacles finally were overcome, but the
conflict hurt close friendships. James remembers Magruder and Wild as two men who lost some during the struggle. “There’s a type of person that thinks that some things are more important than money, and Mr. Magruder was one of those people,” says James. “Warren Wild was one of those people, too.” James says two prominent
McComb men got into a fistfight over the hospital at what was supposed to be a genial cocktail party. Even after construction of the hospital was given the green light, opponents tried to put up a stop sign over its location. James recalls that its current site, the old airport on what is now Marion Drive, was considered ideal by proponents because the land was owned by the city and county. The hospital “was hotly contested and legally disputed even when we won,” says Gillis. “And all of this took time. It took years of trying, but finally the hurdles were overcome and we broke ground.” “I can tell you there was one man that did more to è
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This photo was taken during the ceremonies that opened Southwest Mississippi General Hospital in May 1969.
get a hospital than 10 men put together and that was Norman Gillis,” James says, adding that Gillis contemplated creating a private hospital when circumstances looked dire. “Every time it appeared dead, he took some action to keep it alive.” In 1967, proponents of the hospital had gotten it approved under the sole ownership of the city of McComb. It was to be known as Pike City General Hospital. Late that year, Pike County and two supervisors’ districts of Amite County decided to participate, and the name
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was changed to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center. In 1969, the groundbreaking ceremony took place, and soon the hospital was showing a profit. The board included members appointed by the hospital’s three owners: McComb, Pike County and the two Amite County supervisors’ districts. During Southwest’s first year, property owners paid a 1-mill tax to keep it running, but after a year the hospital was in the black and the tax was dropped, says Gillis. n
Nursing department heads
Southwest Regional’s 2019 nursing managers include, front row from left, LDRP/ Nursery nurse manager Kim Pace, associate chief nursing officer Sheila Williams, RN 1-House Supervisor Doris Holliday, 3-South telemetry nurse manager Mark Irby, Emergency Department nurse manager Lisa Miller, perioperative nurse manager Mary Rita May and chief nursing officer administrative assistant Joan Andrews. Back row: Digestive Disease Center nurse manager Carol Furr, gynecology and pediatric nurse manager Kristy Bond, information system director Jeanny Guillory, RN 1-House Supervisor Patsy Boyd, chief nursing officer LaVoyce Boggs, ICU nurse manager Danny Thomas, medical and surgical nurse manager Carrie Fernald and Ambulatory Surgery Center nurse manager Shuantae Dean.
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Photos by Dorsey Statham After bypass surgery at the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi, Danny Duplantis is recovering his strength and tending to his cows.
A triple bypass winner 20 | SMRMC | 2019
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‘I can tell a difference now’ anny Duplantis of McComb was dealt a bad hand, but he came out a winner anyway. The bad hand was heart disease on both sides of his family, and his own first heart attack at 34. The jackpot was triple bypass surgery at the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi in McComb, which put the 50-year-old back in business. “A couple days ago I was running by foot chasing cows out of the pasture,” Duplantis said. Heart disease plagued both sides of Duplantis’ family, and his oldest brother died of a massive heart attack at age 45. Still, Duplantis was shocked by his own heart attack at 34. “I was assistant driller on a drilling rig, and on my two weeks off I was roughnecking
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Cardiovascular patient very pleased with results ‘I have no complaints whatsoever — other than Dr. Feind wanting me to go on a diet.’ n Danny Duplantis, after bypass surgery
on water well rigs,” said the Houma, La., native. He also played league softball and liked to wade-fish rivers. He had to have five stents then and five more later. Things went well until last fall, when he underwent a stress test and his Louisiana cardiologist said he was due
for double or triple bypass surgery. They scheduled the surgery for a couple weeks later – but then Duplantis’ wife Misty started having chest pains. They went to the Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center emergency room, where Danny also started
feeling unwell. “They had us both in the back,” he said. “It ended up being anxiety for her. She got out. They decided to keep me.” nnn Duplantis was suffering from angina, a medical term that simply means chest pain. But it’s not always so simple. Angina can include a variety of sensations. “Sharp pains,” Duplantis said, summarizing his own experiences. “Sometimes it feels like there’s a load of weight on your chest. You can’t breathe. Sometimes it feels like your heart’s about to explode. “I’ve had it where it was shoulder pain. There’s not one certain association with it.” According to the American Heart Association, “Angina is chest pain or discomfort caused when your heart è
Interventional cardiologist Dr. Carl Feind, left, and thoracic surgeon Dr. Craig Adams are among the specialists at the Mississippi Cardiovascular Institute. muscle doesn’t get enough oxygen-rich blood. It may feel like pressure or squeezing in your chest. The discomfort also can occur in your shoulders, arms, neck, jaw or back. Angina pain may even feel like indigestion.” When Duplantis had his heart attack in 2003, he had chest pains and trouble breathing. “It felt like a truck was sitting on my chest,” he said. Doctors found 100 percent
blockage in the main ascending artery. Fortunately his heart sustained only minor damage.
Back at Southwest last fall, Duplantis was admitted and saw interventional cardiologist Dr. Carl Feind. They discussed
Duplantis’ condition, and Feind said Duplantis could either wait for the originally scheduled bypass or stay at Southwest, where thoracic surgeon Dr. Craig Adams could do it sooner. Duplantis decided to stay. He had come in on a Saturday night, and Adams did the triple bypass openheart surgery on Tuesday in the cardiovascular institute, which adjoins the main hospital. Duplantis stayed another four days while recovering. nnn Back home, he had to spend eight weeks with no activity. The biggest pain was from having his chest cut open. St. Luke Home Health came to help out during that period. And it helps that his wife is a nurse. è
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Want to know more? 601-249-1350 Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi
Danny Duplantis with his wife Misty.
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Now he’s back to work at Oliver’s Auto Sales, run by his father-in-law Earl Oliver. And he fools with cows on the side. All the while he’s waiting on a chance to go back offshore. “I can tell a difference now. I got short of breath pretty quick before,” Duplantis said. “It’s taken awhile. I’m slowly getting there. It’s like Dr. Adams told me, I won’t be back like I was in a year or better. I probably do more than most people who just had triple bypass.” Duplantis’ medications are about the same as they were before the surgery: Crestor to control cholesterol, Plavix to prevent clotting, meds for blood pressure. “There was no other medication added. I think they took one off,” he said. As for the cardiovascular institute, “It’s been excellent. I love all the nurses. Dr. Adams is great, wonderful bedside manners. I have no complaints
with this place whatsoever – other than Dr. Feind wanting me to go on a diet,” he said with a laugh. Actually, Duplantis has tried to improve his diet, eating more vegetables and avoiding starches. Duplantis came out a winner, and he has advice for other people in improving their odds. “If they have a family history, they need to get checked regularly. That’s something I never did, even knowing both sides of my family were eat up with heart disease,” he said, noting his son checks his cholesterol and blood pressure regularly as a result. “Try to eat right. Exercise,” Duplantis added. As for his own situation, “I just don’t see it stopping me,” he said of his heart condition and surgery. “I believe once I’m 100 percent, I’ll be able to do anything I want to do.” n
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Ernest Herndon, left, aboard the elliptical workout device he uses regularly at the Cardiopulmonary Rehab Center, which is part of the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi. Herndon is pictured with Rehab Center program director Dr. Patrick Parker.
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After heart surgery, Roger Graves exercises three times a week at the Cardiovascular Rehab Center.
By ERNEST HERNDON
Long-term benefits at Cardio Rehab Center
56-year-old Liberty man is mowing his grass when his heart starts to thrash like a panicked bird. He visits his family doctor, who refers him to the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi in McComb. There, cardiologist Dr. Christos Kasapis tells the man he has angina and needs a heart catheterization. The patient is skeptical. He exercises regularly and eats a hearthealthy diet. He tells Kasapis he wants to think about it. But when the man looks up his angina on the Internet later, he discovers he indeed has the symptoms, and the recommended treatment is a heart cath.
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Plus, it’s getting worse. And there’s one other factor: His parents both died of heart disease. He returns to the heart center and undergoes a cath, where Kasapis finds 80 percent blockage and inserts two stents. The patient spends the night in cardiac ICU. Kasapis later prescribes cardiac rehab, a 10- to 12-week program at the Cardiopulmonary Rehab Center, located in the Cardiovascular Institute. The patient finds it so beneficial he continues to pay a monthly fee to use the center’s exercise machines. Seven years later the patient (who happens to be writing this article) is still at it – working out
regularly and feeling healthy. Clinic, treatment, rehab – that’s a typical cycle for heart patients, and the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi handles them all. “In the cardio institute, it’s everything you need, housed in one building,” said clinic administrator Natalie Moore. The clinic, which has 20 employees, is located on the first floor of the institute, adjacent to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center. “We get referrals from other clinics or word of mouth,” Moore said. Patients may see thoracic surgeon Dr. Craig Adams, interventional cardiologists Dr. Carl Feind è
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Want to know more? 601-249-1703 and Dr. Christos Kasapis, or nurse practitioners Steven Arnold, Jordan Harrington and Misti Hedgepeth. “We see approximately 220 office visits a week,” said Moore, who’s been at the institute for six years. The heart center opened in 2004. Clinic hours are 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and 8 a.m. to noon Fridays. “Our volume has increased,” Moore said. “I think it’s more patients aware of the facility.” Cardiovascular disease – which includes heart disease and stroke – is the leading cause of death in Mississippi. Obesity and diabetes are major problems as well. “We have a Heart Healthy Day around Valentine’s Day
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Dr. Patrick Parker Cardiovascular Rehab Center each year in our lobby,” Moore said. The event includes screening for blood pressure, height and weight for body mass index, cholesterol and blood glucose monitoring, grip strength testing, information on physical therapy, tobacco cessation, nutritional services, stroke, trauma, pharmacy, home health and hospice. The clinic also does pacemaker checks for patients. nnn When a patient comes to the clinic, she may undergo such non-invasive tests as an echocardiogram, stress test or
Doppler ultrasound. If intervention is necessary, there are cath labs and surgical areas on the third floor – which, incidentally, is something of a misnomer. “We don’t actually have a second floor,” Moore explained. “We have a third floor that bridges to the third floor of the hospital.” Kevin Fiorella is director of cardiovascular services, which include the cath lab and noninvasive cardiology. The heart center has three cardiac cath labs where a long list of procedures take place, including coronary intervention stenting, atherectomy (plaque removal),
device implants, intravascular ultrasound, echocardiography, stress test services, plus a preop and recovery area. “We have a very experienced staff, highly trained professionals,” Fiorella said. “We are available 24-7 for emergency heart caths.” The heart center also does invasive procedures such as coronary bypass, thoracic and vascular surgeries. Fiorella has been at the heart institute for 12 of his 33year career. “Since I’ve been here, we’ve upgraded and added our cath lab equipment to state of the art,” he said. Last year Southwest was one of 203 hospitals nationwide to receive the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry Platinum è
A Cardio Rehab Center visitor uses a treadmill. Patients who exercise there can use a point system, from 0 to 4, to judge the difficulty of what they’re doing. The goal is to keep workouts between 2 points (medium) and 3 points (hard).
Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s success in giving a higher standard of care for heart attack patients as outlined by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. To receive the award, Southwest had to demonstrate sus-
tained achievement for eight consecutive quarters and perform at the top level for specific performance measures. nnn After a procedure, many patients get prescriptions for cardiopulmonary rehabilitation,
which takes place downstairs. “The goal of cardiac and pulmonary rehab is to get folks more fit after their heart problem or heart surgery so they can do what they want to do and reduce their chances of more problems later,” said Dr.
Patrick Parker, program director. People who complete the program can typically do two to three times more physical activity and reduce their chances of heart attack 20 to 25 percent over the next è
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Staff at the Cardio Rehab Center includes exercise physiologist Terrinee Hickman, left, and Sherri Wallace, RN. three years, said Parker, who did his Ph.D dissertation on how many people benefit from the rehab. Worldwide, about half of heart patients get a prescription for rehab. Half of those begin the program, half of those complete it, and half of those continue to do a maintenance program. The rehab program involves carefully monitored workouts, plus classes on such topics as blood pressure, cholesterol, risk factors, heart attack, heart medications, smoking cessation, diabetes, weight management, stress, anxiety and depression. The rehab area is equipped with treadmills, hand-bikes, recumbent bikes, elliptical machines and weights, and is
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staffed by registered nurses and exercise physiologists. Parker has seen promising results in patients who complete rehab. One woman started out so weak she had to be carried. “She got to where she could
walk 15 minutes at a mile to a mile and a half an hour without a break,” Parker said. “That’s tremendous, because all of a sudden you could do normal activities of daily life.” Then there was a man with such diminished lung function
that he could barely speak above a whisper. His goal was to sing in the choir at church. “By the end of rehab he was able to stand in the next room and sing a hymn that made everybody in rehab cry,” Parker said. n
Top-quality
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care at home Cancer Institute proved Southwest could provide specialized treatment Faith Brister, RN, OCN, is pictured with patient Linda Munn.
he Mississippi Cancer Institute’s staff strives to live up to one motto: “Treat patients the way you would want your mom treated.” The staff’s care and respect is one factor contributing to the institute’s success in
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McComb, which is evident from patients’ response to satisfaction surveys. “Many of them just go on and on about how caring and kind the staff were to them,” said institute director Chastity Burnette. “Patients come in è 2019 | SMRMC | 33
Mississippi Cancer Institute director Chastity Burnette, left, is pictured with charge nurse Mary (Christy) Boyte NP-C and Mindy Alexander RN. for daily treatment and sometimes it’s just a matter of talking to them and letting them know you’re there to listen and treat them like a friend, not so much as a cancer patient.” A discussion between the late Dr. Foster Lowe and Southwest Health System CEO Norman Price about the need for cancer treatment in McComb eventually morphed into the Mississippi Cancer Institute, which opened in 1998. “It started with a discussion between Foster Lowe and myself and ended with an application to the State Department of Health in Jackson,” Price said. “They agreed with us that a cancer center was needed here.”
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The cancer institute was a huge sign that Southwest Regional had the potential to be much more than a hospital.
The original building that opened in 1969 on Marion Avenue had been expanded twice in 25 years, but the cancer in-
stitute got its own sleekly designed building a couple of blocks away from the hospital. Price, Lowe and others è
had good reason to believe McComb was ready for such specialized medicine. Research into cancer incidence in Southwest Mississippi showed the region was a little above the state average, reinforcing the need for a treatment center. Price used a four-step model before establishing the institute: availability, accessibility, continuity and cost. When considering availability, Price discovered that the closest cancer centers were in Hammond, Jackson and Hattiesburg, all at least an hourlong drive, which compromised accessibility. “There was a need, it wasn’t available, it wasn’t accessible because these patients who are undergoing chemotherapy are very sick and the medicine makes them sick,” Price said. “We do have a good interstate system, but accessibility could also be a problem if people do not have anyone to carry them those
Radiation oncologist Dr. Burnett Hanson, left, is pictured in the Mississippi Cancer Institute with radiation technologists Ivy Garec and Drew Welch.
80, 70, 40 miles.” Continuity refers to a patient’s ability to have a steady and reliable relationship with their primary physician. “We had to come back then and say, ‘There’s a need, it’s not available, it’s not accessi-
ble, we think we can do it at a reasonable cost and continuity goes along with it,’” Price said. “We didn’t have a facility here, so we built one. Then we bought the equipment and we have actually gone through two generations of equipment.”
Burnette, who has worked at the institute for 16 years, said she has seen the center undergo several changes over the years, such as a transition from conventional therapy to intensity-modulated radiation therapy. The main change has been a steady progression in technology. “We have kept up with the technology, and the biggest challenge is keeping up with the technology,” Price said. To alleviate the mental and physical tolls of a cancer diagnosis, nursing and support staff are available to explain treatment procedures. The institute also has a nurse specializing in chemotherapy teaching, who spends time è
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Want to know more?
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601-249-5510 Mississippi Cancer Institute
helping patients understand the treatment and the side effects associated with it. Because the uninsured and low-income patients are likely to get slammed with treatment costs, the staff tries to ease financial anxieties by looking for assistance with co-pays. “All the low-income patients see our financial counselor,”
Dr. Ronald Delrie, a hematology oncologist, says the Mississippi Cancer Institute’s services match those of facilities in larger cities.
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Burnette said. “They do an assessment on the patient to see what insurance they have. If they don’t have any, we immediately start the process to get enrolled for Medicaid.” Several drug companies offer financial assistance options, which helps offset drug costs. “We work with them to set up payment plans and do whatever is necessary to help,” she said. Dr. Ronald Delrie, a hematology oncologist who has been working in McComb since 2016, said the institute is on par with larger cancer centers in that it offers all current treatment recommendations è
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “There might be some very, very specialized drugs that are radio-labeled or something that we can’t do, but I think we stay on top of all current treatment recommendations,” he said. All immunotherapy agents approved in the past two years are available at the Mississippi Cancer Institute, as well as five new multiple myeloma drugs. But the game changer in cancer treatment has been the development of immunotherapy options, considered the biggest innovation in oncology in the last two years. So far, around 10 immunotherapies have been approved. “What these drugs do is they turn on your immune system or put your immune system in overdrive and the theory is your immune system will attack the cancer cells and kill the cancer,” Delrie said. “Basically, your own body attacks and kills the the cancer cells. Some of those drugs have
‘People that we have come in who operate other cancer centers are just amazed at what we have here.’ n Norman Price
been amazingly successful.” Another treatment that has been successful in treating cancers is targeted therapy. “Targeted therapy means we’re able to identify mutations in a very particular cancer, so if we find a new lung cancer and we test it for a handful of mutations, if there is a particular mutation, there are probably about 10 to 15 targeted drugs out there that we can use,” Delrie said. The most common cancers treated are the ones prevalent in the general public such as breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, multiple myelo-
ma, lymphoma and leukemia. The main cause tends to be smoking, Delrie said. Cancer can be treated most successfully when caught early. Delrie recommends a screening colonoscopy at age 45 to identify colorectal cancer. Any post-menopausal woman or a male who develops anemia should also have a colonoscopy to rule out cancer. Even if the colonoscopy results are normal, people should get one every 10 years. For breast cancer, Delrie said most organizations advocate starting annual mammogram screenings between the
ages of 40 and 45. “If there’s any noticeable breast mass or any noticeable axillary lymph nodes, that should be investigated immediately with either a mammogram or ultrasound,” he said. To prevent cervical cancer, Delrie advises parents to give children the HPV vaccine. “I think if the majority of the population got the HPV vaccine, it would almost eliminate cervical cancer,” he said. Those who have a significant smoking history should get CT scans of the chest annually after the age of 50 to detect lung cancer. Patient traffic grew in 2017 and has remained steady in 2018, with the institute seeing 650 new patients, Burnett said. “People that we have come in who operate other cancer centers are just amazed at what we have here,” Price said. “They like the design, the appearance, the layout and they like the people, which is the most important part.” n
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Emergency Department is ready for everything
“Here in this small town we see a lot of trauma, gunshot wounds, stabs, car wrecks — strokes, heart attacks. I think we do an excellent job in getting them where they need to go in a timely manner. I’m very proud of our hospital.”
Charge nurse Tanya Byrd, RN, is among the many skilled medical professionals on duty in the Emergency Department.
— Tanya Byrd, charge nurse
All hands on deck
Patrick and Sara Hemphill have plenty of good things to say about the Emergency Department’s response to his meningitis.
et’s face it: No matter how well things turns out, a visit to the emergency department happens on a bad day. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (to steal the title of a popular children’s book and movie.) Patrick Hemphill’s very bad day started at midnight one Thursday in August 2018.
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He’d been having headaches for days but treated them with Advil. That night when he woke, his wife Sara said, “Something’s wrong. You’ve got to do something,” she recalled. By 4 a.m. he capitulated and said: “I’ve got to go to the hospital.” è
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Since Sara had to deal with a baby and a toddler before going to work at her law office in Liberty, Patrick decided to drive himself to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center – not the best decision, especially since his father-inlaw Reggie Jones would have been more than happy to take him. When Patrick walked in to the emergency department and said he had terrible head and neck pain, “It was like all hands on deck,” he said. “It was the neck that triggered telling them it could be meningitis.” Sara had had “the worst sinus infection I ever had” the week before her husband got
Emergency Department staff includes, from left, Chanda McGovern RN, Stewart Miller RN, patient access Santana Alford, secretary Carla Osbey, Sierra Martin RN, Michelle Webb RN and Lesley Sterling RN.
sick, and she wondered if he somehow caught that from her and it turned into meningitis. “I don’t think I even sat down,” Patrick continued. “I told them I had a severe headache and neck ache and my eyes hurt. To me the key
words were, ‘My neck hurt.’ ” He was taken to a room and a doctor came in. Pain medicine helped alleviate the agony as well as calm him down a bit. “You worry when you feel bad: Do I have a brain tumor?” he said.
Medical personnel performed a CAT scan, then a lumbar puncture, also known as spinal tap. Patrick had to lean over while someone numbed the area on his lower back where he would get the shot. Then came the needle. “It was an incredible amount of pain,” he said. His very bad day just seemed to be getting worse. è
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The staff includes, front from left, Carolyn Topper RN, Tiffany Cooper RN, Sandy Stewart RN and Dawn Ogea of patient access. Back row, Lykeithia Tolliver of patient Access, secretary Patricia Alexander, Tanya Byrd RN,, Dawn Roberts RN emergency tech Anthony Gooden, Michelle Webb RN, Nick DeArmas RN, Allyson Smith RN and Vanessa Jefferson of patient access. But that’s all part of the process, he said: “When you’re in the hospital, it’s not all fairy tales and rainbows.” nnn Meanwhile Sara had dropped the girls off and hurried to Southwest. She felt better the minute she walked in when she recognized a nurse as an old schoolmate.
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“That’s a good thing about a local hospital. You know the people. You’re comfortable with them,” she said. Patrick, who works for Farm Bureau in Liberty, had a similar experience. “Basically everybody I interacted with I knew or knew somebody who knew them,” he said.
Meningitis is inflammation of the meninges, which are membranes around the brain and spinal cord. There are two types, bacterial and viral, and the former is usually worse, Sara said. Patrick turned out to have the viral kind, but he was treated for bacterial as well to be on the safe side. Visitors had è
to wear masks, which Sara appreciated since the last thing she wanted was to have it spread. Nurses entered the room every hour or two to check on him and take blood. He received antibiotics in case the infection was bacterial. “It’s just like any virus. It has to run its course,” Sara said. The swelling of the brain is what had been causing the headaches, and antiinflammatory drugs calmed that down, after which he felt fine. In all he spent two nights in the hospital. So Patrick’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day had a happy ending after all. nnn Meningitis is one of any number of things that make up
Southwest Regional Emergency Department nurse manager Lisa Miller RN, left, and charge nurse Tanya Byrd RN.
the kind of very bad day that sends someone to the emergency department, said charge nurse Tanya Byrd, RN. “It’s a wide variety of things,” she said. “Here in this
small town we see a lot of trauma, gunshot wounds, stabs, car wrecks – strokes, heart attacks. I think we do an excellent job in getting them where they need to go in a
timely manner. I’m very proud of our hospital. We see a whole lot of stuff that I think nobody knows we see.” The numbers they see would probably surprise people, too – some 40,000 patients this year as of April. “During flu season it’s just insane,” Byrd said. Emergency personnel do a lot of things, but one thing they don’t do is evaluate people over the phone, Byrd said. “If they feel like it’s a medical emergency, they need to come and don’t hesitate, è
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Want to know more? and if it’s not, we can rule it out and send them home. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” she said. A nurse practitioner out front in triage prevents a lot of people from an unnecessary wait to see a doctor. And when people do wait, their orders and tests are being handled behind the scenes, “so when they do get back, their results are back, so their wait is cut down,” Byrd said. Otherwise, “If you’re sitting out there two or three hours in the waiting room, it’s because we’re running nonstop,” she said. If someone gets upset, it falls to the charge nurse to explain the situation and calm them down. People coming in for nonemergency treatment is less of a problem than it used to be,
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601-249-1180 Southwest Regional Emergency Department
‘If they feel like it’s a medical emergency, they need to come and don’t hesitate, and if it’s not, we can rule it out.’ n Tanya Byrd, RN
perhaps because of local urgent care clinics absorbing some of that. And a nurse practitioner can treat those who do come in for such care. On a typical shift there are seven registered nurses, including a charge nurse and triage nurse, plus an E.R. tech,
secretary, three or four clerks and one to two doctors. “I feel like we do a great job here,” Byrd said. nnn Sara Hemphill agrees. She described the experience to her mother Gay Austin, a former emergency room nurse, and
her stepfather, Dr. Will Austin, former chief of surgery and chief of staff at the hospital. “We were telling him what a great experience it was,” Sara said. “He said, ‘You know, you should tell somebody. The only people we hear from are the ones who complain.’ ” So she did, writing a letter to hospital officials praising the staff and facilities. To the Hemphills, Southwest is an integral part of the community. It provides a lot of jobs, and vital medical services close to home. Sara found another upside to the experience as well. “It was our first night away without the kids,” she said. “It was true. We had two nights all to ourselves. We talked more than we had in a long time.” Also, “We had room service,” Patrick said. n
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Orthopedics At left is the device used for a total hip replacement. At right is the total knee replacement.
Today’s selections:
Hip and shoulder replacement Carpal tunnel or cubital tunnel Arthroscopy Trigger finger Dupuyren’s contracture
Ankle fusion Heel spurs Bunions
And coming soon:
Knee replacement 46 | SMRMC | 2019
Orthopedic surgeons Dr. Ted Jordan, left, and Dr. Brian Kindl.
Bone surgeons offer large menu ith a few exceptions, the Orthopedic Clinic of Southwest Mississippi offers the works when it comes to bone and joint procedures. The clinic’s two surgeons, Dr. Ted Jordan and Dr. Brian Kindl, do everything from arthroscopic surgeries to full joint replacements, including shoulder and hip. And that’s not to mention a host of procedures involving hands and feet. The clinic, located at 300 Rawls Drive No. 400 across the street from Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, uses arthroscopy to repair or reconstruct torn ligaments. The procedure involves laparoscopy, or making a small incision to insert cameras and small instruments. In the knee that might mean the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), MCL (medial collateral ligament), LCL (lateral collater-
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al ligament) or meniscus. “It can be caused by simple falls, twists, any sports-type injury,” said nurse practitioner Bhavik Patel. Sometimes an injury occurs when someone who hasn’t been working out for awhile overdoes it in the gym. Recovery depends on the procedure and could take 6 to 12 weeks. Joint replacement is recommended only after all non-surgical methods have failed, such as cortisone injections, oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) or physical therapy. A cortisone injection to the hip is more complicated than one to the knee. The knee can be done in the clinic, while the hip is treated in the hospital’s ambulatory surgery center using fluoroscopy. “When you X-ray, you can see where you’re putting it,”
said Dr. Tom Jeffcoat. “With the knee you can see where to put it, but with the hip you need X-ray vision.” When all that ceases to work and the joint is bone on bone, it’s time for replacement. Typical reasons for a hip replacement are severe osteoarthritis and avascular necrosis of the hip, where the ball of the femur begins to die, grows back and collapses. While arthritis is more likely to affect older folks, avascular necrosis is common in people in their middle years. Factors for that may include genetics, longterm steroid therapy, alcohol abuse and severe falls. “Arthritis is more of degenerative wear and tear with age,” Patel said. Obesity, lack of muscular strength or years of hard labor – such as those experienced by roughnecks on offshore oil rigs – can all take a toll on the
hips as well. Injuries to the shoulder like a torn rotator cuff can hasten the onset of arthritis. A person with a rotator cuff tear will likely get arthritis within the next 10 to 15 years, Patel said. Six weeks of physical therapy typically follow hip replacement. Most patients are able to resume normal activities in 12 weeks and experience full recovery in six months to a year, Patel said. After shoulder surgery, the joint is kept immobilized for six weeks, followed by physical therapy. Orthopedic surgeons also treat broken bones, of course, which typically come in through the emergency room or straight to the clinic. They may be caused by anything from falls to car wrecks. There are two types of broken hips: those that break from severe osteoarthritis è 2019 | SMRMC | 47
and cause the person to fall, and those that break as the result of a fall or other trauma, Jeffcoat said. Regardless, methods for treating them have changed over the years. “Years ago if somebody had a broken hip they were put to bed, whereas now the goal is to get them up and get them moving, and that really helps,” said Jeffcoat, who has practiced here for 40 years. Back then a hip surgery patient would remain in the hospital for one to two weeks. Now they’re in and out in two or three days. Many patients go into a rehabilitation center or swingbed unit at a nursing home for two to four weeks of physical therapy. Like many clinics, Southwest quit doing knee replacements because of problems getting sufficient reimbursement from Medicare, but medical personnel are hoping to change that and
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Dr. Tom Jeffcoat has seen many changes in the field of orthopedics during his 40 years in McComb. resume offering knee replacements any day now. “What we’re looking into right now is purchasing a robot that will assist the surgeons with the knees and hips,” said Southwest CEO Norman Price. “It’s a company called Mako. It’s owned by Stryker. That’s the newest and latest technologies on joint surgery, and it can later be expanded to shoulder, but right now we’re looking at knee and hip with the Mako.” Mako robotic-arm assisted technology provides a personalized surgical plan based on a patient’s unique anatomy. First, a CT scan of the diseased hip or knee joint is taken. This CT scan is uploaded into the Mako system software, where a 3-D model of the hip or knee is created. This 3-D model is è
used to assist the surgeon in the joint replacement procedure. In the operating room, the surgeon follows the personalized surgical plan while preparing the bone for the implant. The surgeon guides the roboticarm within the pre-defined area, and the Mako System helps the surgeon stay within the planned boundaries that were defined when the personalized pre-operative plan was created. In a laboratory study, Mako total knee technology demonstrated accurate placement of implants to a personalized surgical plan. This study also showed that Mako total knee replacement demonstrated soft tissue protection to the ligaments around the knee. In patient and laboratory studies on Mako total hip and partial knee replacement, Mako technology demonstrated accurate placement of implants to a personalized surgical plan. Not all back and neck problems need surgery. Much of
Bhavik Patel is the nurse practitioner at the Orthopedic Clinic of Southwest Mississippi.
back and neck pain can be treated with medications, therapy and injections, which Jeffcoat does daily in the clinic. While Southwest’s orthope-
dic surgeons do not perform neck and back procedures, they do offer procedures to correct such conditions as carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger,
Dupuytren’s contracture, cubital tunnel, foot and ankle problems, heel spurs and bunions. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve is compressed within the wrist, resulting in pain, numbness and tingling. Cubital tunnel syndrome involves the ulnar nerve in the elbow. With trigger finger, a finger curls up as if about to pull a trigger. Dupuytren’s contracture similarly draws fingers toward the middle of the hand. “We do a lot of trigger fingers and a lot of hand procedures. Many of the hand difficulties are treated without surgery,” Jeffcoat said. Ankle fusion surgery is performed on people with severe ankle arthritis or injury. The procedure fuses the è
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joint into a fixed position, alleviating the pain. Heel spur removal is attempted only after every other method fails, such as shoe inserts, stretches and medication. A bunion is a bony swelling on the side of the joint leading to the big toe. It’s easily corrected with surgery, Patel said. When a person comes to the clinic with some sort of joint or bone pain, the doctor or nurse practitioner will examine the area, X-ray it if needed, then decide whether to go with physical therapy, medications, MRI, arthroscopy
The Orthopedic Clinic staff includes, from left, Jessie Miller LPN, X-ray technician Leanne Andrews R.T.(R), receptionist Freddye Quinn, receptionist Victoria ‘Tori’ Campbell, X-ray technician Donna Price R.T.(R) and Paulette Clifton LPN. Judy McCullough RN is not pictured.
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or surgery. At 72, Jeffcoat has seen it all. “I am not retired. I just stopped doing surgery,” he said. “I don’t take any medicines. I still jog. I still backpack. As long as I stay healthy I’ll keep practicing because I enjoy seeing patients so much.” n
Want to know more? 601-684-4613 Orthopedic Clinic of Southwest Mississippi
St. Luke
The St. Luke hospice staff includes, front row from left, case manager Patty Vanderslice RN, Monica Ezell MSN, Angela Davis RN and administrative assistant Janis Morris. Back row, Melissa Alford RN, administrative assistant Annette King, Elly Boyd RN, Bernetta Smith FNP, case manager Debra Hughes and hospice director Michelle McGuffee. 52 | SMRMC | 2019
Home health and hospice care are vital services oth home health and hospice improve patients’ quality of life, and St. Luke Home Health and Hospice is committed to doing exactly that for its patients. “There has been study after study showing that people do better and recover better if they have family around them and are in their home setting,” said Norman Price, CEO of Southwest Health System, è
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The St. Luke home health staff includes, front row from left, clinical director Leighann Rayborn RN, McComb branch director Kayce Sclafani and support system director Loni Coker. Back row, McComb case manager Vickie Boyd RN, McComb OASIS reviewer Kala Adams RN, agency director Stephanie Bunch, PI director Trish Smith RN and McComb office manager Kim Coney.
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Want to know more? which operates St. Luke. “Hospital environment can be sterile, and we know patients tend to recuperate better in their home, and they’re less apt to be readmitted to the hospital.” With six offices operating in areas spanning 14 counties, St. Luke offers home health and hospice services to help patients recover and cope with pain in a familiar environment. The agency’s home health operations began in 2002, while hospice services were introduced in 2013. Price named the agency after St. Luke the Evangelist, who was a physician and healer. But he noted that there are many misconceptions surrounding the terms “home health” and “hospice.” “When you think of home health, you think of maybe antibiotics and treatments that are done at home,” Price said. “But there is also a need for
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601-250-4912 St. Luke Home Health and Hospice home health after orthopedic surgery or after someone has heart failure. It covers a big spectrum of diagnoses and injuries.” St. Luke Home Health and Hospice offers a range of services, including skilled nursing care, certified wound care, occupational therapy, IV therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, low vision program, inhome blood pressure and oxygen level monitoring and assistance with bathing, dressing and grooming. Over the years, the requirements of home health have undergone some noticeable changes, the most
significant being the change in the homebound status. “Years ago, homebound meant bed bound, but homebound status now means that it is a taxing effort to leave home, so they’ve really lightened up on that definition a lot,” Price said. “With hospice, you don’t have to be homebound. You can have your care provided essentially anywhere you live.” Caring for patients’ quality of life means they continue to do things that are routine to them, such as going to church or getting their hair done. “Going out for an average of two to four hours a week is
essential,” Price said. “Home health now focuses more on psychosocial needs as well, and if there are instructions two times a week for psychosocial needs, these are ordered by the physician.” Another recent improvement has been allowing nurse practitioners to make assessments for home health patients. In the past, such assessments were made only by physicians. “Nurse practitioners in the clinics now as well as the hospitals make the majority of the referrals to home health,” Price said. “They can make home visits to the patients who are bedbound and that’s one of the biggest improvements.” Additionally, LPNs are also allowed to do home care on the condition that they’re supervised once a month, ensuring that patients are seen and cared for as much as possible. è
“So we’re utilizing more LPNs now,” he said. Another misconception about home health is that it’s a service for people who are not going to get better. “Home health is just an extension of the health care system into the home,” Price said. “But typically when I talk to people, they think you’re sending them home to decline. It’s to try to get them back active and get their quality of life back.” Hospice director Michelle McGuffee, RN, said patients are offered palliative care. If a patient wakes up in the middle of the night in pain, comfort kits can provide instant relief. “Different agencies have standing orders, so it’s anywhere from Tylenol to Advil to pain medications that physicians have set aside for the patients,” she said. Hospice staff includes nurses, aides, caregivers, hospice volunteers and chaplains. Services are offered
‘One of the things I would like to see is a hospice facility built in this region.’ n Norman Price
24/7 if patients need it. “As the end of time draws nearer and their time is noted to be shortened, we do offer round-the-clock service,” McGuffee said. “Compassion is so needed when it comes to being a hospice nurse, more so than just knowledge. Sitting at the bedside reading to them, singing to them, putting on soft music, candlelight, anything that’s comforting to patients, the staff provides it.” The hospice staff also is committed to taking care of patients’ families, keeping in touch with them for up to a year after their loved one has passed away.
Additionally, some physicians and nurses are on call 24 hours a day for patients. Hospice staff can also care for patients living in a nursing home. “When you’re on hospice in a nursing home, you have hospice care and nursing home care,” McGuffee said. Patients are also allowed to check into a hospital if they’re in hospice care, but only for reasons other than the diagnosis for which they’re receiving hospice care. “For instance, if you’re on hospice for cancer and you fell and broke your hip, then you could go to the hospital,” McGuffee said. “But if you have
congestive heart failure and you fill up with fluid, you would not need to go to the hospital because we have ways to treat you comfortably at home.” In the future, Price hopes there will be a local facility specifically for hospice care. “I’ve seen it firsthand. The family can come and visit, but the family needs rest to be caregivers, because that will take all the energy out of them. So one of the things I would very much like is to see a hospice facility built in this region,” he said. St. Luke provides hospice care at home, but an inpatient facility specifically for hospice is currently not available in Southwest Mississippi. “It would make it comfortable for the patients as well as the families,” Price said. “It’s terribly exhausting on the caregivers. I’d just like to see it happen somewhere, somehow that we could put an inpatient hospice unit where we could help patients and their families.” n
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Mississippi Blood Services presents award to Southwest Mississippi Blood Services, the non-profit organization that provides a safe and adequate blood supply to hospitals across the state, presented Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center with its 2018 Medical Group of the Year award. Ellen Brannan, the hospital’s director of clinical community health education, accepted the award at Mississippi Blood Services’ annual meeting in January. She is pictured with president and CEO David Allen, who commended the hospital’s successful blood drives, which collected 168 units during the year. n
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Heart, mind and body Outpatient therapy program provides many types of rehabilitation
Edward Boss, who had surgery on both shoulders, chats with therapist Danielle Johnston during an outpatient rehab workout.
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hether someone needs help recovering from a surgical procedure, or exercises and strategies to prevent the need for surgery, the outpatient physical therapy program at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center is equipped to provide care. Even people who need help steadying or recovering speech abilities can get the help they need at Southwest Regional through the physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programs available at the outpatient program. “We see a little of everything here,” said program director Gabe Gabler. “Pediatric patients, occupational injuries, industrial injuries. We’re the only clinic that sees patients in all three disciplines.” Physical therapy and occupational therapy are not the same thing, but they do have significant overlaps. Occupational therapy tends to focus more on evaluating
Southwest Regional’s outpatient physical therapy staff includes, from left, Jason Carter LPTA, Danielle Johnston LPTA, Tammy Gillihan and director of rehabilitation Gabe Gabler.
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and improving a person’s functional abilities and improving their ability to perform activities of daily living. It helps a person optimize their independence and their ability to accomplish their daily activities.
Physical therapy, on the other hand, tends to be focused on evaluating and diagnosing movement dysfunctions as well as treating the person’s injury itself. The physical therapist will be more likely to diagnose and treat the physical source of
the problem – the injured tissues and structures. Speech therapists, or speech-language pathologists, assist patients with a variety of physical, mental or neurological problems associated with the ability to communicate. Speech therapists may also provide some services to patients who are deaf or hard of hearing, provide alternative methods of communication and help with accent modification or other speech and communication enhancements. For anyone needing therapy services, “you’re going to get a person working with you who has a lot of education,” Gabler said. “Physical therapists have to go through a doctoral program to be licensed. In the è
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’80s and ’90s, it was a bachelor’s degree. Now, the field has advanced to the point that all physical therapists get doctoral degrees.” That means seven years of education for a physical therapist, three beyond the bachelor’s level, while occupational and speech therapists both need master’s degrees to become licensed, adding two years of education beyond the bachelor’s level. Physical therapists who were licensed before the doctoral requirement was added don’t have to add the advanced degree. All therapists in the physical, occupational and speech fields must complete continuing education requirements to maintain their licensure, as well, meaning they all get updated in the latest theories and methodologies of their fields. Physical therapists and occupational therapists are required under national accrediting and licensure standards to take at
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The outpatient rehabilitation staff includes occupational therapist Jeri Welch, left, and physical therapist Sandy Summers.
least 30 hours of continuing education courses every two years. Speech therapists are required to get 30 hours every three years by their national accrediting association. And that’s a benefit for the people who need to come in regularly for treatment. “We see about 60 people a
day for therapy and 20 to 30 for cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, so that’s about 80 to 100 people a day for all our services,” Gabler said. “Appointment times can vary from 30 minutes to maybe an hour and 15 minutes, depending on what we need to do. “For younger patients, 30
minutes may be all they can tolerate. For an older patient with multiple injuries – from a car accident, perhaps – it may take more time to work on all the areas we need to versus working on just a shoulder injury.” Gabler said two to four weeks is a common duration for therapy, but patients recovering from joint replacements often work with a therapist for three months, and perhaps up to four months. For some problems, in which muscles can’t be used or tissues are too tight, therapists work on stretching those tissues before beginning exercises to regain strength and mobility. è
Want to know more? 601-249-4758 Gabe Gabler Outpatient Physical Therapy
The program has about 3,000 square feet of space in which to work – about 1,500 feet each for physical and occupational therapy, and for cardiopulmonary rehab, plus space in which speech therapists meet with clients. “We can work with about 12 patients in physical and occupational therapy before it feels crowded,” Gabler said. “In cardio, we can work with about 10 before it feels crowded. “Our physical and occupational therapists usually only work with one or two patients at a time. Any more, and we’re not giving the kind of personalized care we want to provide. In the cardiac and pulmonary section, we group patients to work together by ability while they ride the bikes or use the treadmills.” The facility also includes a heated pool that patients can use to reduce impact on joints while doing certain exercises. Gabler said anybody with significant pain, discomfort or lack of movement or function should ask their doctor for a referral.
Liz McDaniel M.S., left, and Katilya Harris M.S. are the outpatient rehabilitation clinic’s speech language pathologists. “There are many things that therapy can help, versus taking pills, and you don’t get addicted to therapy,” he said. Edward Boss knows that from experience, having had therapy in the last couple of years on both shoulders for rotator cuff problems. The right shoulder gave way first. “Over time, with a lot of use, it just wore out,” said Boss, a driver and equipment operator for the Mississippi Department of Transportation and pastor of Tickfaw Missionary Baptist Church. He felt an odd pain one day, but ignored it, and it soon happened again. Eventually, an MRI showed a tear and a bone spur, requiring surgery to fix. With rehab after his surgery, “I was able to get back close to where I was, and regain proper use of my arm and shoulder,” Boss said. The surgery on his left è 2019 | SMRMC | 61
shoulder was more extensive, he said, and required a longer period of therapy. “There was a lot of pain before the surgery,” Boss said. “There was pain after the surgery, but you get where you’re used to it, and then it gets better. You won’t be like you were before, but this helps.” He said he had the same doctor for his surgery, and the same therapist afterward, and he appreciated their work. “They do a good job here,” Boss said. “If I could go any place I chose, knowing what I know, I’d choose here. They’re gentle, and show compassion, and they’re concerned. They know you’re going through something very painful.” Roger Graves and his wife Carol Ann have also had therapy through the program. Roger had a heart valve replacement and an aortic aneurysm repaired. After suffering complications and having a last surgery on Jan.9 this year, he started therapy in
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Carol Ann Graves and her husband Roger have both benefitted from physical therapy.
early March in the cardiac rehab section. Since then, he has spent an hour three days a week using three therapeutic exercise machines about 20 minutes each. “They hook me up to a heart monitor and put all the electrodes on me and take my blood pressure,” he said. “Then, after 10 minutes on a
machine, they check my blood pressure again.” He admits that he didn’t want to go to therapy initially. “I didn’t think I needed rehab,” he said. “I was walking and doing pretty much whatever I wanted to do, but I had so many friends who said they felt better after going through the rehab.”
His wife was in position to nudge him toward therapy. Carol Ann had a knee replacement in 2017, and spent about eight weeks having physical therapy to recover ease of movement while also being treated for a blood clot. “The doctors pushed Roger to have therapy,” she said. “I also encouraged him to go, and keep going.” Both said they had good experiences. “They pushed me. They wanted me to get the best I could get,” Carol Ann said. “It wasn’t always pleasant, but it was successful. I had a great experience. I can’t say enough about them.” Roger added, “Coming here was the right decision,” he said. “They’re super people. They’ve been so helpful, and it’s meant the world to me. n
Service Awards And Thanks to all of our great team! 45 Years
15 Years
Bobbie Green • 07/17/1973
Cory Leggett • 06/23/2003
Central Sterile
10 Years,
cont. Jeremy Jordan • 04/08/2009
Radiology
Lab
Heather Woods, RN • 06/24/2003
Gabe Gabler • 04/30/2009 Outpatient Rehab Director
40 Years
Surgery
Annie White, RN • 06/24/2003
Ivy Garec, RT(R)(T) • 05/06/2009
Joseph Smith • 07/10/1978
Ambulatory Surgery Center
Mississippi Cancer Institute
Surgery
Rebekah Frazier, LMSW • 07/08/2003
Carol Furr, RN • 05/18/2009
Sonja Wells • 07/24/1978
Case Management
Digestive Disease Center
Health Information
Michelle Thomas, NP • 07/22/2003
Terri Burris, RN • 05/27/2009
Mattie Burton • 01/18/1979
Pulmonary Clinic
Employee Health
Materials Management
Deloise Brody • 08/06/2003
Jordan Harrington, NP-C • 05/27/2009
Freda O’Quin, RN • 03/12/1979
Patient Access
Denials Management
Carolyn Topper, RN • 08/18/2003 Emergency Dept.
5 Years
Tina Holland, RRT, CTTS • 12/07/2003
Chatara Givens, RT • 06/09/2013
Respiratory Therapy
35 Years
Rhonda Ashley, RN • 01/13/2004
Mederia Magee, RN • 08/29/1983
Digestive Disease Center
Nurse Administration
Karen Miller, RN • 02/10/2004 Intensive Care Unit
Martha Brown • 02/24/2004 Mississippi Cancer Institute
30 Years
Jonell Lewis • 03/01/2004
Melinda Touchstone, RN • 08/23/1988
Dietary
Radiology
Lacie Gennaro, RT(R)(T) • 04/12/2004
Julie Shepherd, RN • 01/02/1989
Mississippi Cancer Institute
Nursing
Yolonda Tucker • 04/28/2004
Lavoyce Boggs, RN - CNO • 05/15/1989
LDRP
Chief Nursing Officer
Jacqueline Haynes • 04/13/2004 Patient Access
Jennifer Moak • 05/03/2004
25 Years Brent Albritton, RT (R) (CT) • 08/19/1993 Radiology Director
Laurie Greer, RT • 10/11/1993 Radiology - 3-D Mammography
Marcie Aldridge, CFNP • 12/05/1993 McComb Family Practice
Respiratory
Belinda Chapman • 06/13/2013 Performance Improvement
Diane Reeves • 07/03/2013 Administration
Christopher Houghton, RT • 08/04/2013 Respiratory Therapy
Brandy Spicer, RN • 09/13/2013 Intensive Care Unit
Tiffany Earl • 09/25/2013 Mississippi Cancer Institute
Chelsey Nettles, RT (R) (CT) • 11/24/2013 Radiology
Kerry O’Brien • 01/22/2014 Clinic Operations
Business Office
Uleashi Smith • 01/22/2014
Cheryl Parker, RN • 05/03/2004
Victoria Barr, CAN Monitor Tech • 01/22/2014
Case Management
Jennifer Johnson, RT (R) • 05/24/2004
Nursing 5th Floor Nursing 3rd Floor
Keita Huff • 02/12/2014
Radiology
Patient Access/Pre-Authorization
Dianne Easley • 05/25/2004
Charla Rowley • 04/16/2014
Accounting
10 Years 20 Years
Cardiology Clinic
Alayna Duncan • 06/01/2008
Administration
Cari Landers • 04/18/2014 Pharmacy
Zenora Sibley • 04/23/2014
Business Office
Southwest Surgical Clinic
Pharmacy
Tracy Roberts • 06/11/2008
Myranda McCullough, MLT • 05/01/2014
Cardiology Clinic
Lab
Arlena Smith, RT(R)(M)(MR) • 06/29/1998
Dr. Theodore Jordan • 06/30/2008
Joyclen Ashley • 05/02/2014
Barbara Jackson • 06/01/1998
Radiology
Lisa Allred • 09/01/1998 Lab
Lisa Burris • 04/06/1999 Human Resources
Orthopedic Surgeon
Laundry
Peggy Henriquez, MLT • 07/21/2008
Carolyn Foster • 05/28/2014
Lab
GI Clinic
Erika Nunnery, RN • 11/17/2008
Courtney Bacot • 05/28/2014
LDRP
Mississippi Cancer Institute 2019 | SMRMC | 63
Director of radiology Brent Albritton with Southwest Regional’s 3-D mammography device.
‘It’s better for the patient’ Southwest is only area hospital providing 3-D mammogram imaging t the Diagnostic Imaging Center, 3-D mammograms are offered to all patients as standard care and it is the only facility in Southwest Mississippi doing so. “It’s getting more prevalent, but we’re the only ones offering it in this area,” said radiology director Brent Albritton. “With 3-D, we made it our standard of care that all patients get a 3-D mammogram because it’s better for the patient.” è
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The Diagnostic Imaging Center at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center began offering 3-D mammograms two years ago when it got its first machine. In October 2018, the center obtained a second machine and placed it at an outpatient facility located at 1510 Harrison Ave., two blocks from the hospital. “3-D is more diagnostic, it shows you different levels of tissue other than just a 2-D view, so it’s a lot more diagnostic than the standard mammogram. So for our patients, we felt it was more important for them to get 3-D than just the 2-D, so we made that our standard of care for our patients,” Albritton said.
Dr. Lindsey Allred, a radiologist, said one of the benefits of 3-D versus 2-D mammograms is decreased callback rate. “When you have your screening mammogram, if we see any abnormality, then we call you back for a diagnostic, and a 3-D mammogram decreases unnecessary callbacks,” she said. “And this is less stressful for our patients.” Another advantage is early detection of breast cancer, especially for women with dense breast tissue. 3-D mammograms are able to detect and show the different tissue levels, Allred said. By contrast, the cancer can be tougher to detect on a 2-D mammogram if the breast
tissue is dense. In addition to imaging the breast, the Diagnostic Imaging Center also screens lung masses, liver masses and does bone marrow biopsies. Bone density imaging is offered at the outpatient clinic. “We image the whole body, we image patients from birth to death, all ages, all pathologies, emergency imaging in oncology, stroke imaging, trauma, pediatric imaging as well as quite a bit of obstetrics imaging,” Allred said. Albritton added that the center offers “a little bit of everything.” “For our size hospital, we’re pretty progressive on our equipment and our services,”
Radiologist Dr. Lindsey Allred says 3-D imaging reduces the number of patients called back for a second mammogram. It also can provide earlier detection of breast cancer. he said. “We have CT, CAT scans, ultrasound, PET scans, mammography, MRI, nuclear medicine and regular X-rays. We also do biopsies and intervention procedures.” The center has purchased a stereotactic biopsy system, which is 3-D guided, for the mammography machine. Albritton said that will help patients who might have previously had to go to è 2019 | SMRMC | 65
Jackson or New Orleans to get biopsies done. Additionally, specialists come in every week for different intervention procedures. The center will also begin offering a coronary calcium score scan, which calculates a patient’s risk of developing coronary artery disease, which could lead to a heart attack or a stroke. The outpatient clinic, which is behind the closed Family Pharmacy, opened in October 2018. It offers 3-D mammograms and ultrasound for both men and women. “It’s so nice, it’s a great location and patients can be in and out of the clinic a lot quicker,” Albritton said. “It gets some of the load out of the hospital. Some patients have told me they are in and out in 20 minutes.” He added that Southwest Regional has wanted to open the outpatient clinic for a while because it is more convenient for patients to go there rather
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The Diagnostic Imaging Center staff includes, from left, nuclear technologist Mattie Marsalis, radiologic technologist Taylor Ellis, nuclear technologist Johnny Clifton and radiologic technologist Brooke Bridges.
than the hospital. “We were very backlogged on getting screening mammograms and diagnostic mammograms done,” he said. “At one point, it probably took three months to get a screening mammogram done because one machine couldn’t handle the load that we were doing, and diagnostics took a month
or so to get done.” A second 3-D mammography machine in the clinic has helped make the process faster. “Now, our patients can go to a doctor, the doctor can schedule a mammogram and they can get it within a week compared to a couple of months,” Albritton said. To keep up with changes in
technology, Albritton said the Diagnostic Imaging Center leases its equipment. “It’s just a smart way to do business because there’s always new and better equipment coming out,” he said. “Usually, around every five years, our equipment comes up for renewal. If there’s nothing better or cheaper at the time, maybe we’ll just stick with what we’ve got, but most of the time, it’s more economical to lease something new than keep what we’ve got.” Rewind 26 years, when Albritton first started working at the hospital and things were a lot different. “You wouldn’t recognize è
Want to know more? 601-249-5198 “You wouldn’t recognize the department,” he said. The center went from utilizing a film screen that had to be developed to fully digital imaging. The department also used to have a single-slice CT scanner, but now has a 64-slice CT scanner, which is a lot faster. “So the advances in medicine have gone far beyond what it was 20 years ago,” Albritton said. “Digital mammography used to be just 2-D, but now it’s advanced to the 3-D imaging, which is better for your patients. There’s been a lot of advances in the last 20 to 25 years in medicine and it’s not going to stop. It’s going to continue to be newer and better, and we
Brent Albritton Diagnostic Imaging Center are so excited.” There are 50 employees in the radiology department, with the Diagnostic Imaging Center running 24/7. Albritton said most of the employees live in the surrounding area and have worked at the hospital an average of 15 years.
“That commitment from employees is amazing,” he said. “Those who come, we stay here pretty much, so we’ve got a real good experienced staff and we’re about patient care. “We’re here to serve the community and provide the
‘We image the whole body. We image patients from birth to death, all ages, all pathologies.’ n Dr. Lindsey Allred
best means of care to them.” Allred added that Southwest Regional is ahead of most other rural hospitals in Mississippi in terms of the services it offers. It is comparable to bigger hospitals in New Orleans, Jackson and Baton Rouge. Albritton said the hospital has kept up with changes in a timely manner, “more so than a lot of other hospitals.” He credited that to Norman Price, CEO of Southwest Health System. “He is progressive in his vision for the hospital,” he said. “There’s not many small communities that have a cancer center or a cardiac hospital, so that’s pretty progressive for a small town.” n
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Wanda Daley, a patient in the Lawrence County Hospital’s skilled nursing facility, got help from activities director Marilyn Batiste in becoming an artist.
Lawrence County: Skilled care and rehab anda Daley had several medical issues but two were most pressing. Her oxygen level just would not build back up at home and a 40-pound tumor near her abdomen had begun bleeding. Bro. Jay Thompson and the members of New Life Church in Monticello had prayed with
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her and anointed her and she could feel the Lord’s presence. She was supposed to go to Jackson for surgery, but problems were building, and the surgery did not seem possible. One day Daley knew she didn’t “feel right,” but she anticipated a routine visit by
her St. Luke Home Health Nurse. Little did she know, she’d end up in an ambulance headed to the Emergency Department of Lawrence County Hospital and facing a transfer to Jackson. She was dehydrated, with a very high fever and had developed pneumonia.
Thankfully, Dr. Brantley Pace, her longtime family doctor, wanted to treat her in the Swing Bed at LCH. This meant he would see her each day and she would have a team working with her to improve her condition. She had known many of the clinicians, but some were to è
Want to know more? 601-587-1248 Melinda Farthing Lawrence County Hospital Swing Bed Facility
Lawrence County Wound Care Unit specialists who helped the recovery of Wyman Hammond are, from left, Julia Pierce RN, Graham Broome RN, lead nurse Whitney McPhail RN and Caron Henderson NP-C.
become new friends. And staying at the LCH Swing Bed meant she was in her hometown with loving family and friends who could visit and lift her spirits. “I would have been so unhappy and lonely in Jackson without my family and church friends,” Daley said. And showing the power of aggressive nursing and therapies, as well as loving support, her pneumonia got better and the tumor stopped bleeding. Her oldest daughter, Angela Jordan, works in Justice Court in Monticello and said, “I can scoot over here every day during lunch and see my mom. There’s nothing like that reassurance!” Jordan had previously worked in Medical Records at the hospital. Daley’s other daughter, Terri Mason, lives in the Sontag community and sees her mom often, as does her son Justin Daley, who lives in Monticello. Daley praises the staff of the hospital and Swing Bed and says Administrator Phillip Langston “has been a joy! He makes sure I have exactly what I need and checks on me every day!” Respiratory Director Larry Russell has also made sure she was comfortable and all of her needs are met.
After three weeks in the skilled nursing facility, Daley said she felt a lot better. Jordan added, “We don’t think she’s gonna want to come home after this royal treatment!” Activities Director Marilyn Batiste worked one-on-one with Daley finding things she would feel like having an interest in doing. Batiste, an accomplished artist who uses her gift of painting in all areas of the hospital, thought about painting. “I brought in some canvases and acrylic paints and asked Wanda if she’d like to try her hand at painting,” Batiste said. “Wanda jumped right to it! I draw the images then she takes the painting and mixes
the colors to suit her.” Daley said, “This has given me so much enjoyment and it is gifts I can give my grandchildren,” as she pointed to her painting of the Ole Miss logo. Batiste said her goal is to find interests for each patient so they can focus on something other than their illness. Lawrence County Swing Bed skilled nursing includes care provided by registered professional nurses, bed and board, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, social services, medications, supplies, equipment, and other services necessary to the health of the patient. Some of the other benefits of Swing Bed care are:
• Rehabilitation services such as that following strokes and joint replacements (may include physical, occupational and speech therapies). • Frequent laboratory monitoring. • IV medications or medications requiring monitoring by professional staff. • Tube feedings and nutritional stabilization. • Wound management and sterile dressing changes. • Qualifying bowel and bladder care. • Respiratory therapy. • Care of decubitus ulcers and other wounds. • Instructions in ostomy or stoma care. • Terminal care for patients needing pain control. n 2019 | SMRMC | 69
Freda O’Quin is a member of the Benevolent Fund committee, which distributes assistance to hospital employees who need a helping hand.
Benevolent Fund helps workers in need e it disaster-related property damages or medical needs, Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center’s Benevolent Fund is there to lend a helping hand to its employees. The Benevolent Fund was established in the 1990s, thanks in part to the efforts of Dr. David Millican, the hospital’s chaplain at the time.
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“Some people would call him and say, ‘Oh, so-and-so had someone break into their house or the electricity has been turned off and by the way, they work at the hospital,’ ” said Freda O’Quin, who serves on the Benevolent Fund’s committee. “So he thought we could get a Benevolent Fund going for the employees … and he was the
main person who spearheaded this.” The funds come from voluntary employee contributions. Every two years, around $25,000 to $36,000 is spent to assist employees. Seven people, including O’Quin and Chairman Jimmy Greer, serve on the committee. Greer, who has served as chair of the committee for
seven years, said Millican approached Southwest Health System CEO Norman Price and established the fund with his support. “Mr. Norman gave him permission to do it as long as it was properly funded and operated,” he said. Initially, employees could only donate $1. Four years before Greer was appointed è
chairman, he said Millican asked Price’s permission to increase the amount to $5. Employees can request assistance, but not a specific amount. “Now, sometimes we might have a case where we have two people working here and are married,” O’Quin said. “If it’s a totally different situation, that’s OK. “We have certain amounts for certain situations,” she said. “I’m not going to say what they are, but it’s one thing for sickness, one thing for medications, so we have that in our criteria.” The only reason the committee may decline help to employees is if it has provided assistance to that person in the past 12 months. “We ask their department managers to get all the information so the manager can tell us what’s going on with the employee, if something’s bothering them,” Greer said. “So we ask the department managers to research it and verify there’s a need there.” Most times, O’Quin said people don’t think to ask for a portion of the funds to cover their own needs. “We always get calls from people saying, ‘I know so-andso’s having difficulties,’” she said. “The generosity of Southwest’s employees is always so heartwarming to me.” All employees are eligible to receive funds, regardless of whether they work full-time or part-time. Employees may request funds for anything, but Greer said the most common is covering medical expenses. “We also have death benefits for employees who
Jimmy Greer is chairman of the Southwest Regional Benevolent Fund committee.
‘The generosity of Southwest’s employees is always so heartwarming to me.’ n Freda O’Quin
pass away,” he said. “We’ll give a check to the spouse and we’ll help out if the employee was the primary caregiver, but most of what we see is financial hardship due to medical expenses.” Additionally, O’Quin said less dire situations receive help as long as employees can show there’s a need for assistance. “We’ve had people whose car has broken down and they need a part fixed or they can’t ride into work, so that’s a direct need,” she said. “If
someone has a child or grandchild who has to go out of town for a medical emergency, we would help them with transportation and lodging. “Every request is considered. We help with groceries. We had one person’s house burn down last year two weeks before Christmas with all their presents, so we helped them.” Four committee members have to reach a consensus before an employee is
approved for funds. “Any committee member, if there’s a questionable circumstance, can stop it and we’ll get together for a consensus,” Greer said. “I think we’ve only had one disagreement since I was chairman and we eventually approved it.” Committee members, with the exception of O’Quin and Greer, are kept anonymous so employees don’t approach them directly for help. The committee members don’t receive information about who donates to ensure that everyone, regardless of whether or not they donate every pay period, has a fair chance at receiving assistance. More often than not, O’Quin said people donate. “I never miss the dollar I give away,” she said. “We get paid twice a month, so that’s like $24 a year and it goes toward helping people.” The Benevolent Fund is included in every new employee’s hiring information. “The recipients are very, very appreciative,” O’Quin said. “We get a lot of thank you cards and emails. “A lot of times they’re just not expecting it. They don’t realize their boss or friend put them up for it and they probably really don’t know about it until their department head or one of us puts the check on their desk. So, they’re all appreciative and we want to do more.” n 2019 | SMRMC | 71
The Serenity staff includes, from left, Julie Ross APRN,FNP, PMHNP-BC, Tom Gonsalves LCSW and Kristi Stogner LCSW.
Serenity addresses behavioral health
emember enjoying the little things in life? One recent Serenity patient said she finally does, thanks to the Serenity Intensive Outpatient Program, which has partnered with Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center to provide group therapy services for older adults. While the facility does offer oneon-one counseling for all ages, with five licensed clinical social workers and an advanced practice mental health nurse, the signature program specializes in group therapy sessions in which discussions, games and other activities are used to help participants open up about their feelings and provide strategies to feel better. The Serenity Intensive Outpatient
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Program offers an effective way to treat behavioral health issues of adults such as depression, anxiety, grief and loss issues, complicated grief, memory loss, ineffective coping skills and other problems people encounter in life. The Intensive Outpatient Program, or “IOP,” is aimed at men and women over the age of 50, and no referral is needed to receive a free evaluation for admission to the program. Any clinically qualified person with Medicare
and a secondary insurance would be fully covered for the cost of treatment. Tom Gonsalves, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the program, describes it as an intermediate step in therapy, between oneon-one individual therapy and inpatient hospitalization. Gonsalves, along with Serenity’s advanced practice registered nurse Julie Ross, registered nurse Debbie Ball and office manager Valerie Sinclair work collaboratively to provide confidential, individualized treatment. Dr. Rose Casano, a psychiatrist on staff at the hospital, collaborates and consults with the team at Serenity. In addition to the group sessions, members also receive individual or è
family therapy sessions as prescribed to meet their treatment goals. Southwest Regional provides a light breakfast and a hot lunch for group members, as well transportation on the hospital van. The group sessions take place three mornings a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. “We offer therapy and information,” Gonsalves said. “We see clients individually during the program as well as in a group setting. We want them to know we care about them as a person and patients are able to share more in the group.” Kristi Stogner, executive director of the clinic, said the program “offers an effective way to treat the behavioral health needs of older adults in our community by offering a multidisciplinary team approach.” IOP treatment is the most intensive form of mental health treatment available without entering a psychiatric hospital. IOP treatment can also be an effective step down from inpatient treatment if that becomes necessary. These services can make a big difference in helping individuals cope and regain enjoyment of life. A recent graduate of Serenity's IOP said, “Some people are lucky enough to never have mental problems. I’m not one of those. Even as a young child, my fits of depression would hit hard at times. As I grew older I visited a therapist and a psychologist, but it did not do much good until I started at Serenity.” This former group member was transported from her home to group on the hospital van, a service that helps people who live up to 30 miles away to attend. The process begins with assessments and diagnoses and includes medication monitoring, treatment planning and recommendations, screenings and individual therapy, as well
Want to know more?
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601-684-8284 Serenity Psychiatric Outpatient
as the group therapy that is the program’s hallmark. Referrals from doctors are welcome, but prospective patients may also refer themselves to the program. Every person referred receives a complete assessment of their current symptoms and treatment needs. Ross examines patients and consults with Casano to lay out an appropriate medication regimen. Ball assists by performing routine checkups with clients and provides ongoing monitoring of vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and weight changes. Significant irregularities and changes are reported to the
Advanced practice registered nurse Julie Ross, left, discusses her job with a Serenity intern. clients’ primary care physician, who continues to address all medical concerns. In a largely rural area which remains underserved by mental health and wellness providers, Serenity Psychiatric Outpatient and the IOP offer a vital service. Often, in the typical physician’s office, a symptomatic patient may be prescribed an antidepressant, such as Lexapro or Prozac, but no therapy. This happens in part because therapy is not available in the general
‘If you go into group therapy, you learn you’re not the only person with troubles.’ n Serenity outpatient graduate
physician’s office setting. “The combination of medication and therapy is proven to be the most effective measure of treatment according to research,” Stogner said. Clients have the ability to self-refer or they may be referred by an outpatient clinic or another hospital. Typically, successful treatment in the IOP is completed in 5-10 months, depending on the severity of the presenting issues and the response of the individual client. To constitute a therapeutic group, IOP must maintain a minimum of 3 members and a maximum of 10. The average length of the program for a client is six months. However, the treatment is individualized and may be repeated if the client’s symptoms deteriorate or if they experience relapse. “If you go into group therapy you learn you’re not the only person with troubles,” the recent graduate said. “As I have just finished a term in group, I can say it has been the greatest time of my life. These ladies became as close as sisters that I never had. “Each meeting you pour out your heart to them, and they do the same to you. Then everyone, especially the therapist, helped one another to get a brighter outlook on life. I was sorry to finish, but I could see improvement in each of our lives. Sometimes you might feel yourself in that deep black hole of depression. Serenity IOP might be the answer to your prayer as it was to mine.” Stogner urges people not to forget or discount the individual services offered by Serenity, which includes counseling services for all ages. Ross also works with patients seeking individual therapy, along with licensed clinical social workers Mary Jan Treadwell, Lacy Holmes and Sylvia Stogner. Missi Robinson handles insurance issues for the clinic. n 2019 | SMRMC | 73
Medical Foundation is busy For many years the Southwest Regional Medical Foundation has raised money for worthwhile medical causes. The foundation’s efforts have provided funding for large purchases like medical equipment and for smaller but valuable items like food warmers for patient meals and floral ceiling tiles in the Mississippi Cancer Institute. The Medical Foundation remains active today,
Front row from left: Edie Montalvo, Brenda Haskins, Tena Haskins, Kelly Parker, secretary Leanne Jenkins, Gayle Jackson-Love, Christina Mitchell and executive director Tina Brumfield. Back row: Lissa Covington, Natalie Moore, Nancy Smith, Robbin and Jeff Daughdrill and Ellen Brannan.
Front row from left: Jim Hedges, Hillary Freeman, Susan Hedges, Sara Hemphill, board president Michael Guttuso, Mary Thornton, LeWair Foreman, Jennifer Dumas and Chris Price. Back row: Debbie Stovall, Linda Purtell, June Hart, Kelly Hart, treasurer Carlyn Doyle and Sherry Price.
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having recently completed another fundraiser with its popular “Operation!” event in April. Its mission statement is to promote the good name of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in the community. The foundation relies on plenty of volunteer work for its fundraising. Members of its board of directors are pictured below.