West Tennessee Medical News November 2015

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PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT PAGE 2

Phil Norsworthy, MD ON ROUNDS ICD-10 Implemented, Sky Still Intact After Multiple Delays, ICD-10 Launch Goes Relatively Smoothly In the end, perhaps the hardest part of the ICD10 launch was simply getting to it. After years of ‘sky is falling’ prognostications surrounding the changeover, the launch date of Oct. 1 came and went pretty quietly ... 3

Congress Holds Key to Tax Credits for 2015 Lawmakers Typically Wait Until End of Year to Decide on Extensions

By PEGGy BURCH

Ask CPA Sandy Blockman what advice he has for physicians as they consider their 2015 business taxes, and he’ll tell you that the best advantages now hinge on action by Congress. In other words, they’re unpredictable at best.

“It’s a guessing game at this point,” said Blockman, a partner at Watkins Uiberall who’s been practicing for 35 years and estimates that medical providers comprise about 20 percent of his client base.

“At the end of every year, it seems that taxpayers wait anxiously for Congress to enact extensions of popular business tax breaks that are set to expire,” Blockman said. “And what happens is that every year Congress waits to act until what seems to be the last possible moment.”

Last year, lawmakers approved the extensions in December. “They extended probably a few dozen provisions retroactively,” Blockman said, “and the year before that, at the end of 2013, they didn’t act until January (2014) to extend the provisions that were going to expire at the end of 2013.”

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HealthcareLeader Bill Rich Helping Transition Regional Hospital of Jackson to its New Brand Name

Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame Inducts Inaugural Members On Oct. 12, the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class at a gala luncheon celebration at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center. Hosted by Susan Dentzer, senior policy adviser for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the event paid homage to eight pioneers who have shaped the health and healthcare industry of Tennessee and the nation ... 6

ONLINE: WESTTN MEDICAL NEWS.COM

Things Are Green Around Tennova-Regional Hospital, COO Says It’s a Good Thing

By SUZANNE BOyD

Tennova-Regional Hospital of Jackson’s COO, Bill Rich, was on hand to present a $1000 check to Southside High School Principal, Anita Tucker.”

When you realize your heart just isn’t into the career you are studying for, what do you do? Well if you are Bill Rich, you talk to your mother and you head in a new direction – graduate school for healthcare administration. Today, Rich is chief operating officer at

Don’t Miss the Big Event

the newly renamed Tennova-Regional Hospital in Jackson, and much like chartering a new course in his career path, he is helping them navigate into their new branding, Tennova.

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Rich was studying toxicology with a minor (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)

From industry conferences and continuing educational units to fun ways to support the area’s many non profits ... check the online calendar for healthcare happenings. www.WestTNMedicalNews.com PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

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PhysicianSpotlight

Gentle Giant in the ER

Phil Norsworthy, MD, Putting Lessons Learned Early to Use eral Hospital. “In 1992, I married my wife Mandy, who was While he may practice from the Mississippi Delta,” in one of the state’s busiest said Norsworthy. “While we emergency rooms, Phil Norreally liked Jackson, we were a sworthy, MD, has not forgotlittle homesick.” ten his small town roots or the Sixteen months later, Norlessons he learned while pracsworthy returned to Indianola ticing there. Hailing from the and to the Hull clinic. “Right tiny community of Pendorff after we moved back, Mandy’s near Laurel in South Misfather came in to see me. He sissippi, Norsworthy, at over was having chest distress and six feet, may tower over his we found a large mass in his patients but his soft spoken lung. He was a tough old exmanner and caring nature marine and made it another has been putting patients in year. The day before he died, the Emergency Department he was riding his lawn mower,” Room Physician, Phil Norsworthy, enjoying time with his family in the Grove at Ole Miss. Pictured l to r: Phil, his son Baker, his wife at Jackson Madison County Emergency said Norsworthy. “We were so Mandy, daughter Lauren and her husband Jimmy.

General Hospital at ease for thankful that we could be with the past 20 years. him and felt like God placed Norsworthy dreamed of being eiuating in 1978 with a degree in zoology.

The youngest of five, Norsworthy says us back there to help him. While it was ther a sports broadcaster or an attorney He completed his medical school training he grew up in a very traditional family. His where we needed to be at the time, I did but realized in high school that he had an in 1982 at the University of Mississippi father was an electrician and his mom was realize that I liked working in an ER more aptitude for science and liked the idea of School of Medicine in Jackson. a homemaker. “My dad was 42 when I was than in a clinic. After Mandy’s dad died, helping people. By the time he graduated As far as his preparation for a career born and my closest sibling was ten years we decided to come back to Jackson and I from West Jones High School in 1974, in the medical field, Norsworthy is the older than me,” he said. “And to give you got my old job back.” he knew medicine was the path he would first to admit that he sort of went into it an idea of how small my town was, the elOver his 20 years in the emergency pursue. After two years at a junior college, blind. “At the time, there were no other ementary school I went to had maybe 100 department at Jackson General, NorsworNorsworthy transferred to Ole Miss, gradmedical people in my family, although my students in the entire school.” thy says a lot has changed. “When I came two sisters eventually became nurses,” he here, we had seven doctors covering three said. “We had no friends who were phy12-hour shifts a day,” he said. “Now we sicians. I never shadowed one or worked have 14 doctors, six fellows that cover ten in a clinic or hospital. I sacked groceries physician shifts a day and 11 nurse practiat the A&P in high school and worked at tioners or physicians assistants that cover Sears part-time while in college.” seven mid-level shifts a day for a total of For his residency, Norsworthy re17 providers a day. We have gone from mained in Jackson at the Medical Center seeing about 35,000 patients a year to and chose to pursue family medicine. “I over 80,000 each year and are the busiest sort of liked to do lots of different things ER in the state. and family medicine provided me with Away from work, Norsworthy can be that opportunity,” said Norsworthy. “Durfound on the golf course or cheering for Sign up online for ing my three year residency, I had the opa subscription and the Ole Miss Rebels any chance he can learn how to thrive in portunity to see patients of all age groups get. His pride and joys share in his love of the new integrated and had a lot of options of what I could do healthcare paradigm.

Ole Miss. His daughter Lauren graduated when I came out. It really prepared me for with a degree in nursing from Ole Miss working in an ER.” and will complete her nurse practitioner After his residency, Norsworthy moved degree in December. Son Baker is a juto Indianola, Mississippi to join the Hull nior at Ole Miss pursuing an engineering Brothers Clinic. “I went with one of my degree. medical school friends who I had known One thing Norsworthy enjoys the at Ole Miss. We went into practice with most about practicing medicine is his three other physicians. The last of the Hull time with the patients. “I love to sit down, Brothers retired when we came in. Being in talk to them and help figure out what is On a business trip? a small town, the clinic saw a lot of obstetric going on with them, especially if it is comOut of the country? patients, delivering more than 550 babies IH Executive is plicated and they have not been able to everywhere you are. each year.

We each took care of our own find the answer,” he said. “I love what I Online 24/7. patients and delivered their babies whether do and part of that is in part to the great we were on call or not. While I was at the partners I have the privilege to work with, The way we deliver healthcare outside of the hospital is clinic, I delivered more than 1000 babies,” some of which I have worked with for 20 rapidly changing. Forward-thinking practitioners are said Norsworthy. “It was important to each collaborating with other providers to improve the patient years. Work can be busy and a little crazy of us to be there for our patients, I felt that experience while decreasing costs. If you are an executive at times but we work for a hospital that people trusted me and that I was going to or medical director who seeks to thrive in the new lets us take good care of people regardless integrated healthcare paradigm, then join the conversation be the one to take care of them.” of their means. The hospital has grown by subscribing to IH Executive, and find out how your peers In 1991, Norsworthy left the clinic and survived through some tough times are already improving outcomes with greater efficiency. to work in the emergency department at but the one thing that has never changed Baptist Hospital in Memphis for a few is that they provide a good place for us ihexecutive.com/subscribe months then moved to Jackson to work in to do what we need to take care of our the ER at Jackson Madison County Genpatients.”

By SUZANNE BOYD

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ICD-10 Implemented, Sky Still Intact After Multiple Delays, ICD-10 Launch Goes Relatively Smoothly

By CINDY SANDERS

In the end, perhaps the hardest part of the ICD-10 launch was simply getting to it. After years of ‘sky is falling’ prognostications surrounding the changeover, the launch date of Oct. 1 came and went pretty quietly.

Of course, the numerous delays and a compromise hammered out this past summer between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the American Medical Association regarding a grace period for providers, might well have contributed to the relatively smooth kickoff.

“People have just done a tremendous amount of work over the last four years for this transition,” said Ed Hock, managing director for Revenue Cycle Solutions at The Advisory Board Company, a national healthcare research, technology, consulting and performance Ed Hock improvement firm.

He added the issues that cropped up in the wake of the launch tended to be relatively minor technical glitches. However, Hock noted, any kinks in reimbursement or cash flow probably won’t show up until this month or beyond as bills begin to make it through the claims processing cycles of payers around the country.

Helping physicians during the transition to the much more complex diagnostic coding system is an audit and denial moratorium (for specificity) granted to practitioner claims submitted under Part B for a period of 12 months. CMS has also installed an ICD-10 Ombudsman to help triage provider issues.

Hock, who works primarily with larger health systems across the country, said it’s important for those in the industry to understand the caveats attached to the moratorium. First, he noted, “The grace period only applies for the physician portion of the claims.”

Hock added that for inpatient claims, hospitals need to get it right from the start.

“The professional portion of the claim still has the grace period but not the technical portion of the claim,” he explained.

Hock continued, “Even in the professional portion, the physician has to use an ICD-10 code, and the code has to be within the correct family so the physician has to make a good effort.”

For example, a provider bill coded for pneumonia under ICD-10 should still be paid even if it the practitioner didn’t drill westtnmedicalnews

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down far enough to note this was a second occurrence … or if an office visit was billed for acute serous otitis unspecified, when it really should have been coded for the left ear.

Hock again noted that hospitals do not have that same luxury. “Hospitals are very much at risk for denials, audits and lower reimbursement based on codes,” he said. “It does set up a potentially difficult situation for hospitals because they are so dependent on the physicians practicing in their hospital getting the codes and documentation correct, while that same physician has a grace period for his or her claims.”

From his observation, hospitals and health systems that have worked with both contracted and employed physicians to thoughtfully train them on the importance of detailed documentation have the best chance to be successful. “What’s most effective is showing them the impact full and complete documentation can have on their quality metrics such as observed vs. expected length of stay or observed vs. expected mortality rate,” he said.

“Once physicians see how a few words in a patient’s record can dramatically change how they measure up to their peers in these categories, they are much more willing to spend an extra moment ensuring the documentation is complete,” Hock continued.

He added that outside of the coding and payment side of the equation, ICD-10 offers a tremendous amount of information and analytics to physicians that could be used to better inform decisions. The question, Hock noted, is “How do we, as a system, begin to use this data to improve care?” While that answer might not be immediately known, Hock said the potential is exciting.

Circling back to reimbursements, Hock said even if concerns are somewhat mitigated for individual practitioners and their office staff over the next months, it’s still crucial to make every effort to use the exact diagnosis code … both because codes have to be in the right family and because the clock is ticking on the grace period.

“This is a golden opportunity for them to practice in an era without penalty so they need to make sure they are periodically calling in outside auditors or having an office manager do spot checks. That way when the grace period ends on Oct. 1, 2016, they are prepared,” he said.

“Practices don’t want to fall into a false sense of security. Working towards correct documentation and coding will set them up for success in 2016,” Hock concluded.

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Mercy Launches World’s First Virtual Care Center

By LYNNE JETER

ST. LOUIS, MO — Last month, Mercy unveiled the world’s first Virtual Care Center in the heartland of America.

Bishop Edward Rice of the St. Louis Archdiocese officially blessed the nonprofit Catholic health system’s newest facility Oct. 6 in Chesterfield, Mo., a suburb located 15 miles west of St. Louis.

The new $54 million building on a 38-acre campus houses the nation’s largest single-hub electronic intensive care unit (ICU/Mercy SafeWatch), and also provides a center for telemedicine innovation and a testing ground for new healthcare products and services. More than 300 physicians, nurses, specialists, researchers and support staff at the four-story, 125,000-square-foot center are tapping into technology to deliver care to patients around the clock via audio, video and data connections to locations across Mercy and around the country through partnerships with other health care providers and large employers.

“This is a huge and impactful step forward for telehealth and I appreciate that Mercy leadership had the vision and determination to demonstrate to their community and the world how telehealth is

More than 300 physicians, nurses, specialists, researchers and support staff at the Virtual Care Center are tapping into technology to deliver care to patients around the clock via audio, video and data connections to locations across Mercy and around the country.

one powerful and effective solution to the issue of diminished access to healthcare that many citizens in America and across the globe are experiencing,” said Rena Brewer, CEO of Global Partnership for Telehealth Inc., and director of the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center.

Randall Moore, MD, MBA, Mercy Virtual president, spoke with Medical News exclusively about establishing the Virtual Care Center and the positive impact it’s already making on practices, clinics and hospitals across the United States.

Healthcare is Changing.

It was an evolutionary process. We launched our first virtual program – Mercy SafeWatch, our electronic ICU– in 2006, and we’ve experienced great success. As the team continued to build programs and saw the importance of virtual care becoming a transformational pathway for our health system, a light bulb went on. It made sense to create a Virtual Care Center that worked like a hospital to bring together teams, resources and infrastructure to care for patients in a much more coordinated manner and to offer a care continuum that extends 24/7/365. We needed a facility for this conduit of care, just as we’d need one for a particular service like cancer care.

How can you stay on top of the issues?

How did the concept evolve into the world’s first-of-its-kind telehealth center?

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How did the idea of Mercy creating a Virtual Care Center originate?

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The Virtual Care Center evolves from the culture and charism of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy who founded our health system were famously known as ‘the walking sisters.’ That goes back 187 years, when nuns were mostly cloistered and did good deeds from their convent for people in need. The walking sisters, who were quite independent, didn’t want to wait for people to find them. Instead, they searched for people in need and addressed those needs on the spot. They were an anomaly for their time.

When you think about hospitals in general, we wait for people to come to us, and we give them exceptional care.

The idea permeating our culture was to seek those needing medical care by taking virtual care teams from our clinics and hospitals and proactively identifying their healthcare needs, intervening with them earlier and more completely. It translates to a lower cost, high impact option to keep a person from deteriorating.

At the board level and leadership level, (Mercy president and CEO) Lynn Britton and (Mercy CFO) Shannon Sock were the primary drivers of this project, understanding the Virtual Care Center is 100 percent consistent with our organiza-

tional mission – and also a model for us to progressively replace our hospital-based care with care when and where people need it. If we do this well, we’ll be able to realign our contracts to be rewarded for keeping people well.

How have you made the Virtual Care Center a sustainable business model while also dealing with the complexities of regulations, interstate commerce, and the like?

First, it’s important to know we didn’t go into the Virtual Care Center thinking that a fee-for-service equivalent would make it a sustainable business model. We weren’t expecting, though we’d have welcomed it, very much direct reimbursement as has panned out. In Missouri, our parity laws have helped.

We’re broadening it to enable us to move our teams and our patient centricity from our facilities, which are somewhat limiting, to virtual care anytime, anywhere.

If we did that with something like performance-based, population health contracts, we could intervene earlier and more effectively, and then it would pay for itself.

For example, here’s how it works in today’s environment in the hospital ICU vs. the floor. In the hospital ICU, the hospital is paid a lump sum for a patient with a given condition and it’s a fixed amount of money. The ICU is more expensive, and the patient usually doesn’t have as good an outcome. One result of our Mercy SafeWatch program shows the actual v. predicted mortality for the last few quarters in our Joplin (Mo.) hospital has been running around 50 to 55 percent. In other words, 45 to 50 percent of the patients who ‘should’ve’ died didn’t. That statistic doesn’t help much with finances, right? It should help us with market differentiation; by having Mercy SafeWatch in place, we can do a better job taking care of people.

But here’s another example: Looking at the risk-predicted length of stay, both in the hospital and the ICU, our length of stay is running 20 to 30 percent less than predicted in the ICU, and 30 to 35 percent less than predicted on the whole hos(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)

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WHO’S TENDING OUR DOCTORS?

Mercy’s Virtual Care Center Tailored to Improve Physicians’ Quality of Life Center.

“Hopefully, we’ll approach ST. LOUIS, MO — Inter100 percent of the calls at night no nist Randall Moore, MD, MBA, longer going to our doctors,” he recalls countless nights of sleep insaid. “By not taking calls at night, terrupted by on-call requests. doctors can be more productive.”

Moore, now president of Physicians have shared conMercy Virtual, is doing his part cerns about Virtual Care Center to make sure more doctors enjoy operations and how it will impact their private lives when they clock their practices, Moore shared. out of their practice, clinic or hos“The Virtual Care Center pital. isn’t a call center,” he empha“Instead of getting a 2 a.m. sized. “It should be progressively call to come in, they can sleep,” integrated into the doctor’s pracsaid Moore, who helped open the President of Mercy Virtual, Dr. Randy Moore, addresses a group of visitors. tice. We’ve designed it specifically world’s first-of-its-kind Virtual This room, like many areas of the Virtual Care Center, has the latest in the way the doctor would want it Care Center last month near St. audiovisual technology. done. You might say it’s somewhat Louis, Mo. “It’ll enable them to be of a mass customization … supmore productive, have less chance a community with no virtual care and he’s porting our doctors and other healthcare of burnout, and improve their quality of life the only intensivist, he’s on call all the time. professionals via the Virtual Care Center.” while we enable better, more responsive It’s tough and doctors burn out. With the In one-on-one conversations with doccare for their patients.” virtual team, the doctor can go home and tors, Moore is often asked how the Virtual When Mercy’s electronic intensive have a life. We do that increasingly across Care Center “can be better than what I can care unit (ICU), also known as Mercy Safethe board, not just Mercy SafeWatch. Using do?” Bolder ones ask: “Is it a threat to my Watch, was established in 2006, Mercy had a nurse-on-call feature, which is housed inpractice?” one “full” intensivist group in one site. Now, side the Virtual Care Center, 70 percent of “The Virtual Care Center is another Mercy has intensivist groups at multiple the calls our doctors were getting a couple resource for a doctor or hospital to have in sites, said Moore. of years ago are now handled without them the care of their patient when they don’t “One reason why, aside from our overbeing bothered.” have the time, resources or infrastructure arching mission of care, is to improve the Moore said Mercy will take another to do it on their own,” he said. “It’s very quality of life for our doctors,” explained step to making it easier for doctors by bringcomplementary to what they do.”

Moore. “For example, if a doctor goes into ing more physicians into the Virtual Care One telehealth success story involves

By LYNNE JETER

Mercy’s early warning system for sepsis. To identify patients at risk for sepsis and alert doctors to these risks for early intervention, Mercy’s Early Warning & Identification System (EWIS) monitors multiple patient variables in real-time.

“We look at building programs as ways to partner with doctors to create a seamless integration for the patient,” explained Moore. “We look at how we can improve the value of that entity – practice, clinic or hospital – in the local marketplace so they can show first and foremost, they can deliver better care with documented outcomes for the patients they serve. Secondly, we show how they’ll be financially and operationally rewarded instead of having their revenue adversely affected. I’ve had doctors say, ‘I don’t know how to sustain my practice if that happens.’ Instead, we’re helping them build a financially sustainable and professionally more rewarding offering in the community.”

Moore recalled a primary care physician sharing his experience after working with the Virtual Care Center. “He told me that after 35 years of the practice of medicine (without telehealth),” said Moore, “it was the most rewarding time of his professional life. That’s what we strive for, to allow doctors to get back to the basics of practicing medicine.”

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Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame Inducts Inaugural Members On Oct. 12, the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class at a gala luncheon celebration at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center.

Hosted by Susan Dentzer, senior policy adviser for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the event paid homage to eight pioneers who have shaped the health and healthcare industry of Tennessee and the nation.

The Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame was created by Belmont University and Belmont’s McWhorter Society with the support of the Nashville Health Care Council, a founding partner. Grand sponsors for the 2015 event were Community Health Systems and Hospital Corporation of America. Other sponsors included Acadia Healthcare, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, FirstBank, JourneyPure, MedCare Investment Funds, Meharry Medical College, AmSurg, Foundations Recovery Network, LifePoint Health, Medical News, NashvillePost, and PYA. For more information, go online to tnhealthcarehall.com.

Thomas F. Frist Sr., MD

Committed Physician, Savvy Businessman

A native of Meridian, Miss., Thomas Frist, Sr. attended the University of Mississippi, where he started a transportation company that eventually employed 17 other students, the first evidence of his entrepreneurial spirit. But Frist’s passion lay in caring for people, shaped from his early experiences working as an orderly at Meridian’s local hospital. Frist studied medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his residency at the University of Iowa.

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ity care, the bottom line would take care of itself. That emphasis on patient care permeated every decision he made while leading HCA and remains a centerpiece of the company’s culture today.

Thomas F. Frist Jr., MD Physician, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur

In 1935, he opened a medical practice in Nashville. During World War II, Frist served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps as the chief of medical services for a 1,000-bed hospital. Discharged as a major at the war’s end, he returned to his Nashville medical practice. In 1957, he was appointed to the American Medical Association Committee on Aging and subsequently established the Tennessee Commission on Aging.

During this time, Frist envisioned creating a hospital where patients came first and where funding was not dependent upon government sources. This dream led him to set up Park View Hospital with several other medical professionals and businessmen. The success of Park View served as the seed of inspiration for Frist, his son Thomas Frist Jr., MD, and friend Jack C. Massey to form Hospital Corp. of America in 1968. Frist served as chief medical officer and chairman of the board for HCA. One of his most important contributions to HCA was its patient-first culture.

Frist, who is the namesake for the HCA Frist Humanitarian Award, believed that if the company focused on giving qual-

A Nashville native, Thomas “Tommy” Frist, Jr., MD is a graduate of Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University. An entrepreneur at heart, Frist created a collegiate advertising company and earned his pilot license while at Vanderbilt University. In 1965, he graduated from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and then returned to Vanderbilt University for his surgical residency.

His residency was interrupted by a two-year term as a flight surgeon at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia during the Vietnam War. While in the military, Frist had an idea for a company that would bring hospitals together to share resources. In 1968, Frist, along with his father and Jack C. Massey, formed Hospital Corp. of America. As one of the nation’s first investor-owned hospital companies, HCA modernized the way healthcare was delivered in the United States.

Frist served HCA in various leadership roles including as president, CEO and chairman. He remained on the board of directors of HCA until 2009 and currently serves as chairman emeritus.

Philanthropy has always been central to Frist’s life. His board activities have included The Frist Center, Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors,

Montgomery Bell Academy, the Nashville Health Care Council, Vanderbilt University and both the national and local United Way. Frist also has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the United Way’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” and the Nashville Business Journal’s “Best in Business Lifetime Achievement Award.”

He is quick to credit his success to his wife, Patricia (Trish), for her support and encouragement throughout the years.

Frist credits his wife with keeping him grounded on their first priority — their three children — while building HCA into the company it is today.

Ernest Goodpasture, MD

Pathologist, Passionate Educator, Public Servant

Born in 1886 near Clarksville, Ernest Goodpasture was a 1907 graduate of Vanderbilt University. After obtaining his undergraduate degree, Goodpasture attended Johns Hopkins Medical School and served as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical Schools.

In 1924, he was invited to join the new Vanderbilt School of Medicine as the Department of Pathology’s first chairman.

Returning to his home state, he spent the majority of his career in Tennessee at Vanderbilt before taking the position of scientific director of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in 1955.

While at Vanderbilt, Goodpasture served as associate dean and dean of the medical school, but his passions were research and teaching. His scientific accomplishments led to his recognition as one (CONTINUED ON PAGE 7)

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of the world’s foremost pathologists. His interest in infectious agents and viruses led to the development of the chick embryo technique used for the cultivation and study of a number of viruses. This work provided the foundation for the successful development and improvement of vaccines against yellow fever, typhus and influenza, saving thousands of lives.

In recognition of his scientific work, Goodpasture received honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Chicago and Washington University. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, among others.

Goodpasture was awarded the Association of American Physicians’ Kober Award, the American Public Health Association’s Sedgwick Medal, the Association of Pathologists’ Gold Headed Cane, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

Jack C. Massey Pharmacist, Philanthropist, Investor

Georgia native and University of Florida alumnus, Jack Massey began his career as a pharmacist and small business owner. Relocating to Tennessee, he built a long career steeped in healthcare, business and investment.

After selling his chain of six drug stores, the entrepreneur founded Massey Surgical Supply Co. in the 1930s and supplied area hospitals and doctors with medical equipment. In the 1940s, Nashville’s Protestant Hospital was experiencing significant financial challenges that would likely lead to the facility’s closure. Understanding the importance of the hospital to the area, Massey and the Rev. James Sullivan presented a plan to save the hospital to the Tennessee Baptist Convention. In 1948, the hospital was renamed Mid-State Baptist Hospital, and Massey served as a trustee for two decades, 12 as chair.

During his successful career, Massey also entered the food industry as owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken and later at the helm of Winner’s Corporation, one of the largest franchisees of Wendy’s restaurants.

In 1968, Massey and the Frists co-founded HCA, an organization that would become the country’s largest for-profit owner and operator of hospitals.

Passionate about his work and contributions to society, Massey’s career was built on the belief that operations, convenience and service can always be improved. Throughout his career, he was quick to comment on the joy he found from learning and accomplishing those improvements. “Lots of people have more than I do, but not many have as much fun. The fun is in the accomplishing,” he stated.

His desire to share his ideals and perspective with future generations led to his deep commitment to Belmont University, which included helping to build a nationally recognized business school, now known as the Jack C. Massey College of Business. westtnmedicalnews

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R. Clayton McWhorter

Clinician, Businessman, Mentor

Creating a career as both a healthcare clinician and businessman, Clayton McWhorter began making an impact on the healthcare industry as a pharmacist after graduating from Samford University.

Recognizing he could expand services to patients by moving into the business side of healthcare, McWhorter became a hospital administrator, honing his leadership and management skills. Working his way through the ranks at HCA, McWhorter became president and chief operating officer of the hospital giant. He then participated in the formation of HealthTrust Inc., where he served as chairman, president and CEO until the company merged with Columbia/HCA in 1995.

McWhorter served on the Columbia/ HCA board until May 2000, including a stint as chairman.

In 1996, McWhorter founded Clayton Associates, a firm created to invest in and advise entrepreneurs within the healthcare industry. In 2008, he founded PharmMD, served as chairman, and currently serves on its board. He also is a member the Harpeth Capital Advisory Board.

Committed to philanthropy and his community, McWhorter and his family have greatly contributed to education in Nashville and beyond through the creation of the McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford and Belmont’s McWhorter Hall and McWhorter Society. Throughout his career, McWhorter has also been involved with a number of community organizations including, the American Cancer Society, the YWCA, and the Middle Tennessee Council of the Boy Scouts of America, among others. McWhorter is the recipient of many awards in recognition of his community service, including the United Way’s Tocqueville Award and the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award.

McWhorter has mentored countless leaders throughout his career and continues to offer his four guiding principles to all mentees: “Be prepared. Find a mentor and be a mentor. Act like an owner. Give back.”

David Satcher, MD, PhD Advocate, Public Servant, Lifelong Educator

Known as a dedicated physician-scientist, David Satcher, MD, PhD, has devoted his career to advocating for the health and safety of all Americans by tackling issues not previously addressed nationally – including obesity, health disparities among minority populations, and mental illness.

Satcher earned both his medical degree and doctorate from Case West-

ern Reserve University. In 1982, he was named president and CEO for Meharry Medical College, where he oversaw the merger of Hubbard Hospital and Metro Nashville Hospital, changing the provision of healthcare for Nashville’s underserved populations. During his tenure at Meharry, he also led the plan for academic renewal, which included a national fundraising campaign and the rebuilding of faculty.

Satcher would then go on to serve at a national level. He has held the positions of director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 16th Surgeon General of the United States, and the 10th Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. He currently serves as director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Throughout, Satcher has received a number of top awards, including the Ronald Davis Special Recognition Award from the American College of Preventative Medicine, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases, and the designations of Nashvillian and Tennessean of the Year. Satcher has also received more than 50 honorary degrees from universities and colleges and has written a clinical guide on multicultural medicine.

Committed to making public health work for all people, Satcher believes in the power of strong leadership. He noted, “Ethical leaders are needed who will take on the problems of poverty, racism and lack of access to healthcare.”

Mildred Stahlman, MD Pioneer, Scholar, Educator

The mother of modern neonatology, Mildred Stahlman, MD, is a native Tennessean and longtime Vanderbilt student, educator, researcher and physician.

Graduating from Ward-Belmont College for Women, she matriculated to Vanderbilt University in 1943 and graduated with honors from the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in 1946 as one of only four women in a class of 50. She completed internships in Cleveland and Boston, a residency year in Chicago, and a research fellowship in Sweden.

Returning home to Tennessee, Stahlman then embarked on a 60-plus year career at Vanderbilt. Throughout her work as an instructor, professor and practitioner of pediatrics and neonatology, Stahlman had more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and assisted in the training of more than 80 post-doctoral fellows from approximately 20 countries. More than just a mentor, Stahlman welcomed the fellows to her log cabin and farm for holidays where they rode horses, swam in the creek and became part of her extended family.

During her career, Stahlman revo-

lutionized the care of high-risk newborns by creating the world’s first modern neonatal intensive care unit in 1961. She also promoted what was at the time a novel concept of regionalized neonatal critical care and helped establish the first Angel Transport Mobile Intensive Care Unit.

Her tireless work on behalf of children and the profession was recognized in 1987 by the American Academy of Pediatrics with the Virginia Apgar Award and in 1996 by the American Pediatric Society’s John Howland Award. She was also named the Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumna in 2002 and the University’s Distinguished Alumna in 2004. A newsletter from the institution quoted Stahlman saying, “Medicine is more than a profession — it is my calling.”

Danny Thomas

Entertainer, Humanitarian, Child Advocate

A radio, film and television entertainer and producer, Danny Thomas was born in Michigan in 1912 to Lebanese immigrants.

Before he became a star, Thomas was a struggling actor who needed money to pay for the delivery of his newborn daughter, Marlo. Placing his last $7 in the collection box at church, he quickly realized what he’d done and prayed for a way to pay the looming hospital bills. The next day, he won a small part that paid 10 times what he had just donated.

While still trying to take his career to the next level, Thomas again found himself at church praying for guidance.

He made a vow to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes, saying, “Give me a sign that I am going in the right direction, and someday I’ll build a shrine in your name.”

As Thomas’ career took off, he remembered his promise. He began raising money for his vision and joined with local business leaders in Memphis to create a groundbreaking research and treatment hospital devoted to curing catastrophic diseases in children. Opening in 1962, St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and all over the world and continues to lead the charge in finding ways to defeat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

To this day, the hospital stands by Thomas’ founding promises that no family pays St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food and that St. Jude freely shares its discoveries to impact the lives of children across the world.

Throughout his life, Thomas was recognized with many awards, including receiving a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Paul VI, the Congressional Gold Medal, induction in the Television Hall of Fame and a posthumous receipt of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

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Bill Rich Helping Transition Regional Hospital, continued from page 1 in chemistry at Ashland University in Ohio when in his junior year he found he didn’t have the heart for toxicology. “I was interning in an animal laboratory and realized I just could not do testing on beagles or horses.

I just didn’t have the heart for it,” said Rich.

“I went to visit my mom, who is a nursing assistant. The chief nursing officer came in and I talked to him about my predicament.

I couldn’t start school over and I knew that I wanted to help people in some way. He suggested healthcare administration. I did some research on it and got excited about it as career.

Rich went to Xavier University to pursue his graduate degree in Health Services Administration. “I chose Xavier because its program required a 12-month paid residency. Plus about 75 percent of residents get a job offer so that alleviated any worry about what I would do when I graduated,” said Rich. “Since I had no experience prior to graduate school, residency was a great way to gain hands on experience.”

At the end of his residency, Rich was offered a full-time position at Mercy. “At that time, Mercy was in talks with an independent community hospital about merging,” said Rich. “The CEO asked if I wanted to go back to school to become a certified project manager and take the lead on the merger. It meant I would sit in on executive level meetings, which would be a great experience for anyone in their first two years of working. Once the merger went through, it was agreed that the parent company would invest $260 million to build a new hospital. They asked if I

wanted to be part of project and for someone in their mid-twenties, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Over the course of his 14 years at Mercy, Rich had eight promotions which led to responsibilities for property management, business development, special projects and even director of cardiac and surgical services for two hospitals. “Through all my experiences I was fortunate enough to get some real exposure to hospital operations,” said Rich. “I was a part of a transitional team that closed one facility and relocated all the services to an older facility all while building a new facility. I got additional training in process improvement to help workflow transition to the new facility. That led me to the vice president of ambulatory services and business development which included responsibility for a 25-bed critical access hospital.”

After four years at the vice president level, Rich felt it was time to take the next step in his career and begin the search for a chief operating officer position. “My wife and I knew that if I were going to make a move it would include leaving Ohio,” he said. “My ideal position would be in a 100225 bed community hospital south of the West Virginia/Kentucky line. When the opportunity with Regional came up, we did an onsite interview. It was a great hospital with a great CEO who had more than 35 years experience and could help further my development. With the facilities focus on quality and process improvement, I thought it was a great fit and we made the move to Jackson a year ago.”

Visibility is an important part of Rich’s role in management. “My first CEO during my residency told me that people watch, and you have to be able to have your actions deliver what your verbal expectations are. You had better be the role model for the way you want your staff to be. I want staff to be comfortable enough to approach me and I like to be out talking to staff,” said Rich.

“Engaging employees is key to the success of a hospital. If they are proud of where they work and what they do, quality of care and financial success improves. It is my job is to empower employees to make decisions and ensure that they have the tools and resources they need to be successful. I try to think how a decision will affect everyone in the hospital. This helps me think through things before making a decision.”

In his year in Jackson, the most challenging part of his job has been incorporating the Tennova brand that Community Health Systems is spreading to its facilities across the state. “CHS had been looking at having a state-wide branding for its facilities.

It is a model they have implemented in other states,” said Rich. “Tennova was the name of East Tennessee market that CHS acquired. The name brand was already there and established so there was no need to start with a new one and try to move it across state. It is really just a name change. There is no change in management or ownership of the hospital.”

Now that the four West Tennessee facilities have joined the facilities in East Tennessee under the Tennova name, CHS will complete the transition across the state.

When the discussion came up regarding the change to the Tennova brand name, Rich knew it would take quite a bit of effort but was pleasantly surprised by how fast and smoothly the transition has gone. “We had to identify every single thing that would need to be changed because of the name change,” he said. “That ranged from forms to how the phone is answered to the name of the cafeteria, it all had to be changed.

New badges had to be printed which meant every employee and physician had to have their picture made. It was a lot of work and some things just could not be done in the timeframe we established due to extenuating circumstances such as signage being built or permits. But all in all the entire process has exceed my expectations.”

Communicating the change both internally and externally has been key to the transition. “We held town hall meetings with staff and had the CEO talk about what Tennova was and what it wasn’t. We sent letters to all employees and held monthly CEO lunches with them to talk about the change. The executive team attended the meetings as well,” said Rich. “Staff wanted to know how they would be impacted. Basically it is a different name on the building and on their paycheck. The change has also meant that the facilities inside and out have been painted and there are new signs.

The final piece is to transition physician practices from Regional to the Tennova brand. Ultimately Regional just changed its name and painted the hospital. At its heart it is the same great hospital with the same great staff.”

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Nanotechnology Meeting its Potential Silver Bullets Battle Infection

By LYNNE JETER

RALEIGH, NC—A North Carolina State University (NCSU) engineer has spearheaded groundbreaking research considered a milestone achievement in fighting post-surgical infections.

Rohan Shirwaiker, PhD, an assistant professor and adjunct assistant professor of biomedical engineering for the NCSU Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), led a research team to develop and test battery-activated nanotechnology built directly into orthopedic implants to stave off microscopic, infectioncausing pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA. “Silver has long been known for its anti-bacterial properties, but first it must ionize to be effective,” explained Shirwaiker, who has been engaged in research on the project since 2007, when it became his doctoral theme at Penn State University. “Understanding how this work could be effectively improved for medical devices, especially implants, hadn’t been explored much from an engineering standpoint. The breakthrough was in demonstrating that a little electric current to the silver on the implant releases the ion particles, which attach to bacteria cells and either kill them or prevent them from replicating.”

Here’s how it works: The power source, similar to a watch battery, is integrated into the joint implant design. A low-intensity electrical charge to a silvertitanium implant releases low-toxicity silver ions to kill or neutralize bacteria. The body’s own fluids serve as a conducting medium between battery and silver, enabling the low-level charge.

“It was very exciting when we showed how the electrical activation of silver significantly enhances the antimicrobial efficacy connected to the implant,” he said, “and when I say significantly, I mean quite significantly.”

Research showed a 99 percent decrease in bacteria growth on and around implants after 24 hours, and an infection-

free environment after 48 hours.

The son of a retired pharmacist, and a native of Mumbai (Bombay), India, Shirwaiker completed his master’s degree in engineering at Penn State University, while concurrently interning with Harley Davidson making motorcycles. “A great experience,” he called the internship. “I really enjoyed it. But when I was searching for a research project for my PhD, I was fascinated by the biomedical world, and started collaborating with orthopedic surgeons.”

Shirwaiker, 31, named the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ (AAOS) Best Young Investigator in 2014, is also exploring the development of a smartphone app to control the power source and the release of silver ions remotely, and track the biophysical activity around the implant area.

“It’s quite exciting work,” said Shirwaiker. “The possibilities to improve the patient experience are endless.”

With more than 1 million joint replacement surgeries performed annually in the United States, Shirwaiker’s innovation in silver microbial technology has the potential to save significant healthcare sums while allaying treatment costs for post-surgical infections (now topping $1.6 billion annually) and also boosting patient outcomes.

“A few years ago, a study predicted that by 2020, the number of knee replacements would increase six-fold,” he said.

“Similarly, cases of infection could dramatically increase.”

Shirwaiker’s research extends to the development and characterization of 3Dbioprinting processes for knee joint tissues and the trachea. His work also includes similar projects with the University of North Carolina (UNC)-NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.

“I’m heavily involved in some of the 3-D printing aspects of medical projects, especially tissues of the knee joint,” said Shirwaiker. “There will be a point when these types of implants, combined with live cells and silver microbial technology to fight infections, won’t even show up on x-rays a few years down the road because tissues will have formed around them and the body will have absorbed them.”

Shirwaiker, whose 9-member research team includes PhD candidates, graduate students and undergraduates, said groundbreaking research will translate to commercial success with total collaboration from invested parties.

“When you really have contributions from doctors, surgeons and biomedical engineers,” he said, “that’s truly when things are going to start working very well.”

Congress Holds Key to Tax Credits for 2015, continued from page 1 The Wall Street Journal reported in August that a survey of 912 chief financial officers and comptrollers by the auditing firm Grant Thornton found that more than half of companies that use tax credits were assuming for budget purposes that Congress wouldn’t extend the provisions.

At the time, only 9 percent of the CFOs said they felt confident the tax breaks would pass.

“So we’re dealing with a very dysfunctional Washington,” Blockman said.

“As we stand right now, the currently expired business tax breaks include what everyone loved, which was the bonus first-year depreciation,” as well as the provision called Section 179, which allows taxpayers to claim some property Sandy as business expenses that Blockman would otherwise have to be considered capital expenditures.

The deductions for new equipment in the year of purchase make it unnecessary to depreciate them over time.

“Doctors who are buying new diagnostic equipment or other medical equipment, even furniture for the office, those again now have to be depreciated over typically five or seven years, where previously it could have been written off very rapidly, or bonus depreciation would have allowed them to write off a very large percentage in one fell swoop,” Blockman westtnmedicalnews

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said.

With expiration of the bonus depreciation and Section 179 deduction limits, companies can claim only $25,000 in first-year depreciation on equipment that costs up to $200,000. Blockman said the deduction had been as high as $500,000 on purchases up to $2 million.

Many of the most liberal business tax provisions were a response to the financial downturn of 2007 and 2008.

“They just kind of opened the floodgates and said we want people to start spending money. Let’s give them the ability to do so by giving some tremendous tax advantages,” Blockman said. “Everybody’s gotten addicted to this largesse, and so Congress keeps reinstating it.”

However, he said, the unpredictable and retroactive extensions by Congress don’t encourage business spending in the way the tax provisions were intended.

“If I buy $100,000 worth of equipment, and I’m going to save potentially 40 percent of that, or $40,000, in income tax, my after-tax cost is only $60,000,” Blockman said. “If I know that when I’m buying it, that might encourage me to buy it. But if I’m buying the equipment in January, and I don’t know that, then restoring it to me and letting me write it off at the end of the year – I love it, but that didn’t really encourage me back in January to buy it or not to buy it.”

Another popular provision that has expired, and may or may not be ex-

tended, is the research and development tax credit.

“There are a number of physicians in the Memphis area and across the country who are involved in research and commercial applications of that research, who have taken advantage of this,” he said.

“Any particular physician specialty, be it orthopedics, gastroenterology or cardiology, if they are coming up with new surgical procedures or new devices to be used in surgical applications, the monies that are being spent to develop those technologies and those products have qualified for the R&D credit in the past. . . . Whether it will become available retroactively, your guess is as good as mine.”

Blockman says a useful strategy to reduce taxes in 2015 is to delay income to 2016. “The very simple technique is just to delay receipt of money, so don’t invoice patients at the end of the year. That’s not a very common ploy any longer (for physicians’ offices) because most patients are coming in with insurance, and you can’t really control when those monies come in.”

In addition, businesses on the cash method of accounting should pay as many bills as possible before the end of the year.

“Identify money that can be spent on deductible expenses. Say you have to repair some equipment, do it now. Don’t wait until January 2016. If you’re paying bonuses, pay them before the end of the year. There’s nothing exotic about that

strategy, but it still works,” Blockman said.

He said medical groups also should determine whether they qualify for the tax credit to help small employers pay for employees’ health insurance premiums.

An employer with 25 or fewer full-time equivalents, and a salary average of less than $50,000, can qualify.

“The sweet spot is essentially less than $25,000 in average wages, and less than 10 people working for you,” Blockman said. “That’s a 50 percent credit of the amount of insurance premiums, but there is a steep phase-out, so you’ll start losing the advantage of the credit once your average wages increase between $25,000 and $50,000 and you have more than 10 full-time equivalent employees.”

Because of the unstable political climate, “We’re working with clients now with the law as it is, not as we would like it to be,” Blockman said.

“Back in July, the Senate finance committee came up with a bill of the usual extenders. The House of Representatives wants to make some of these provisions permanent, and they didn’t act on it. So something’s likely going to happen. Can they get something done before the end of the year? History shows that they have.

But they say in the investment business, past performance is not an indication of what the future is gonna bring, and I guess you could say the same thing about Congress.”

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Outside Influences

Improving the Environment to Improve Health

By CINDY SANDERS

It’s easy to think of many of the key target areas for environmental health specialists as pertaining to ‘someone else.’

After all, the United States has clean drinking water, sewage containment, air quality standards and large federal agencies focused specifically on food safety, emergency preparedness and infectious disease. Yet, a second glance underscores how real those problems are here, as well.

National Environmental Health Association Executive Director David T. Dyjack, DrPH, CIH, pointed out concerns at home include transitions in the conditions under which individuals live, the food they eat, drought and other effects of climate change, emerging threats brought into the country, and an aging infrastructure. Adding stress to that infrastructure is a shifting population pattern. America, like most of the rest of the world, is rapidly urbanizing.

Dyjack noted 5 percent of local health departments now service 50 percent of the U.S. population.

As needs shift, the field of environmental health is also evolving. While prevention has always been a focus, the need for early intervention has taken on increasing importance.

“In line with the social determinants of health, 80 percent of a person’s health status has little to do with a person’s clinical care … 80 percent is related to where you live and lifestyle choices – what you eat, what you drink, how you recreate,” he said, adding that is the purview of the environmental health specialists that make up NEHA’s membership. “This is why clinicians and environmental health professionals need to work together much more collaboratively.”

Prevention, he said, is a ‘pennies on the dollar’ proposition. However, Dyjack continued, “The irony is over 95 percent of every health dollar spent in this country is spent on clinical care, and less than 5 percent is spent on prevention.” He added, “Public health and environmental health is a best buy for citizens of this country. The investment is inverted.”

One Health

“One of the issues that is not getting the attention it deserves is what is being referred to as ‘One Health,’” Dyjack said.

He explained the concept seeks to unify the health of animals and humans.

The initiative looks to forge collaborations “between physicians, osteopathic physicians, veterinarians, dentists, nurses and other scientific-health and environmentally related disciplines,” according to OneHealthInitiative.com.

In addition to emerging zoonotic diseases, the One Health concept recognizes the ease of geographic transmission of illness in modern society. “The world is effectively globalized,” said Dyjack. “The diseases that are incubating in megacities and in the developing world, those dis10

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eases can easily be transported in a day.”

He continued, “For the record, what happened this last year with Ebola was entirely predictable, entirely preventable, and environmental health professionals should have played a major role in both the prevention and mitigation of the chaos that ensued.”

Dyjack added that a system should have been put in place after the breakout in the 1970s to thwart future epidemics.

However, money wasn’t allocated at that time. “And we paid the price for that lack of investment this year,” he said.

In addition to the very real human toll, the World Health Organization estimates $32 billion has been spent in the aftermath of the recent Ebola crisis. Dyjack pointed out building health systems in West Africa would have been a fraction of the cost.

“It is in our own interest to ensure rudimentary health systems are in place where organisms like Ebola are likely to be present. Hygiene, sanitation, water systems, the use of personal protective gear … this is the domain of environmental health.”

development, governmental infrastructure, maternal and child health, health equity, and chronic disease. A board certified industrial hygienist, Dyjack also has advanced degrees in public health with a doctorate from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree from the University of Utah. Previously he served as associate executive director for programs with the National Association of County and City Health Officials and also has 18 years of academic experience in public health at Loma Linda University.

“I believe environmental health is central to health and wellness of individuals, to families … and frankly, to economies of cities, counties and states,” Dyjack said.

When we have resisted moves to intervene early, he noted, the cost has often been much heavier on the back end. “We just have to have the courage to redirect resources from the clinical environment to a prevention strategy,” Dyjack concluded.

U.S. Water Supply

pitalization. If we can get a sick person well faster, that’s less time for the patient in the ICU. Looking at it financially, the direct variable ICU costs us about of $900 a day. If it costs us $650 a day to use Mercy SafeWatch, then we’re getting 100 percent return on our investment of virtual care without being paid directly for it.

But the most important aspect is that a third of the ICU patients predicted to die aren’t dying. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and it implies that patients accessing the Virtual Care Center are doing better.

We expect to deliver more efficient, effective, and higher impact care as we integrate virtual into bedside and clinic care.

A safe water supply isn’t only a challenge for less developed nations, however.

Dyjack said it is a very real issue for Americans, as well.

“On average each year in this country, we lose about one trillion gallons of fresh water,” he said, adding the loss comes from cracks in a crumbling and aging infrastructure.

That loss impacts both economies and the health of populations. The combination of water management processes and prolonged drought has had a dire effect on a number of agricultural counties in California. In addition, Dyjack said, valley fever has become a growing problem in the area as the desiccation of the land allows wind to blow around organisms in the topsoil and spread fungi into the air.

Other water-borne issues include the spread of Legionella (which can lead to Legionnaires’ disease and Pontiac fever), a bacteria that has been showing up in commercial buildings in the ventilation systems and can be inhaled through water aerosols. In the Great Lakes area, an algae bloom producing the toxin microcystin is contaminating the water supply, posing a challenge for traditional water treatment systems. In the Pacific Northwest, the algae has also led to economic damage as crab and clam harvests have had to be closed down at times.

Leading NEHA Efforts

Passionate about his profession, Dyjack took the helm of the NEHA in May of this year. He has almost 30 years experience in environmental health, emergency preparedness and response, public health informatics, infectious disease, workforce

Mercy, continued from page 4

What’s Mercy’s longer-term goal for the Virtual Care Center?

One of our key growth areas for our mission is to create the Virtual Care Center as a conduit of care anyone, anywhere can access. We’ve been on a 10-year, several hundred million dollar journey to get where we are. We’ve learned many positive things, and we continue to learn from missteps.

We’re proposing that instead of selling our services, or having an entity trying to replicate the same services without us being able to provide much support, we’d like to build a national consortium of interdependent partners. We’d continue packaging our offerings and building our infrastructure with our partners’ support. They could buy into our entity, we could capitalize it together and replicate what we’ve learned with a fraction of time and money, and also do it in an interdependent way so we could then go to GM, Boeing, CMS, United Healthcare to offer it to people they’re covering throughout the 50 states.

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GrandRounds The Jackson Clinic Announces Addition of New Physicians JACKSON - The Jackson Clinic recently added five physicians to its staff; Dr. Javeria Ahmed, Endocrinology; Dr. John M. Arnold, Orthopedic Surgery; Dr. Kelly C. Harris, General Surgery; Dr. Rebecca A. Nass, Family Practice and Dr. javeria Dr. Nancy P. Utley, OB/ Ahmed GYN. Dr. Ahmed received a Bachelor’s Degree from OCF College for Girls, Islamabad, Pakistan. She received her Doctor of Dr. John M. Medicine from Aga Khan Arnold University Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.

Dr. Ahmed completed her Internship at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN. She completed a FelDr. Kelly C. lowship in Endocrinology Harris and Metabolism at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN. In addition, Dr. Ahmed is Board Certified, American Board of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Dr. Rebecca A. Nass Metabolism.

Dr. Arnold completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. He received his Doctor of Medicine from St. George’s Dr. Nancy P. Utley University School of Medicine, Grenada; West Indies. Dr. Arnold completed his Residency at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems, Richmond, Virginia. He completed a Fellowship in Sports Medicine at Hughston Clinic in Columbus, Georgia. Dr. Arnold is Board Eligible, American Board of Orthopedic Surgery.

Dr. Harris completed his undergraduate degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, FL. Dr. Harris completed his Internship and Residency at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/ Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, TX. He is Board Eligible, American Board of Surgery and is a member of the American College of Surgeons and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons.

Dr. Nass completed her undergradu-

Medical News is pleased to provide space for press releases by providers in our Grand Rounds section. Content and accuracy of the releases is the sole responsibility of the issuer.

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ate degree at Toccoa Falls College, Toccoa Falls, GA. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, Memphis, TN. Dr. Nass completed her Internship and Residency at Family Medicine, University of Tennessee, Jackson, TN, Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. She is Board Eligible, American Board of Family Practice.

Dr. Utley completed her undergraduate degree at Murray State University, Murray, KY. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Dr. Utley completed her Internship and Residency at the University of Louisville Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health. She is Board Eligible, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

West Tennessee Healthcare Announces Outpatient Medical Center in Lexington JACKSON – West Tennessee Healthcare announced plans to build an outpatient medical center in Lexington, TN, during its regularly scheduled Board meeting in September. The facility will be located on a 5.3 acre tract on the south side of U.S. Highway 412. The 17,078 square foot medical center will offer primary care services, physical therapy, rotating specialty clinic services, and behavioral health services. Completion is expected Summer 2016.

Primary care services will be located in an 8,541 square foot area within the facility, and will include a waiting room, reception area, triage area, business office, three physician offices and office space for nurse practitioners, fifteen exam rooms, procedure and stress testing rooms, laboratory and X-ray.

The 6,078 square foot physical therapy area will provide physical, occupational and speech therapy services for adult and pediatric patients, as well as return to play and return to athletics services.

Pathways Behavioral Health Services will provide outpatient behavioral health services in a 1,917 square foot area within the new medical center.

77th Annual Meeting. Several members of West Tennessee Healthcare’s leadership team attended the event to surprise Arnold when he received the recognition.

Information provided during the THA’s award recognition says Arnold was honored for his growth and development of West Tennessee Healthcare for the past 30 years: Arnold’s leadership has guided West Tennessee Healthcare through challenging times, including changing patient and payer expectations and declining reimbursement. Arnold is always steadfastly committed to the health system’s patients, employees and physicians, as well as improving the health and well-being of the communities it serves. He has guided the organization through challenging times, including changing patient and payer expectations and declining reimbursement. However, he always is steadfastly committed to the health system’s patients, employees and physicians, as well as improving the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

His vision for a healthier West Tennessee region has resulted in numerous service expansions, including the LIFT Wellness Center, the Alice and Carl Kirkland Cancer Center and a new freestanding rehabilitation hospital. He has guided

the operation of the health system into West Tennessee’s largest employer and helped ensure high quality healthcare services were available for nearly 500,000 residents in the region.

Arnold says he is honored by the recognition but credits others for his successes.

The Foundation and Subway Dedicate Hospitality House for Cancer Patients JACKSON - Officials gathered last month for a ribbon-cutting to mark the official introduction of Subway House.

Through a partnership with The Foundation and the Kirkland Cancer Center, Subway is sponsoring a home for cancer patients needing assistance during treatment.

Subway House will become a part of West Tennessee Healthcare’s current Hospitality House Program, which provides lodging for patients and families with travel constraints which would negatively impact their healthcare The house for patients and their families is located on Wilshore Drive in West Jackson.

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Bobby Arnold Honored by the Tennessee Hospital Association JACKSON —West Tennessee Healthcare President and CEO Bobby Arnold has been honored by the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA) with the Meritorious Service Award for a Chief Executive Officer.

Meritorious service awards recognize leadership and service by individuals in support of their hospitals and health systems. The award was presented during the Tennessee Hospital Association’s NOVEMBER 2015

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