I haven't seen this mentioned re: Starkville
- Thread starter L4Dawg
- Start date
I'm sure they do. Honestly OCH is holding back healthcare in Starkville, and that is holding back the town. Independent hospitals are not going to survive. The trend was already there but Obamacare cemented it. If had to choose I would want North Miss but either would be an improvement.
Is that really going to help Starkville though? Not sure how those two systems operate, but generally I would expect the Starkville location to be treated as a feeder to their main campus. Maybe some slight convenience when traveling because you're on the same system, and maybe some of the specialists have office days in Starkville, but from the standpoint of "what kind of treatment can I get in an emergency" and "what kind of treatment can I get in my home town without having to travel", I would assume this won't be an improvement.
I mean, getting rid of OCH before it becomes a financial drain on the county (if it's not already) may be helpful to the county. But it's not going to address the issue of not having enough local capabilities.
I mean, getting rid of OCH before it becomes a financial drain on the county (if it's not already) may be helpful to the county. But it's not going to address the issue of not having enough local capabilities.
I'm not sure how Baptist handles things at its places but North Miss does a decent job with its satellite facilities. They won't make it a replica of NMMC, but they do bring in specialties and support them if the market is there. I guarantee you Baptist doesn't want them in the Triangle.
Hard to get a feel for the current competence of this institution. They bought the Amory hospital system and it strained their finances so much they had to do a mass layoff system wide to get the finances back in order. And the hospital Covid government money bonanza was in between the Amory purchase and the layoffs.
Now supposedly they want to spend a larger chunk of money again after apparently just getting back on steady financial ground? They need to spend more money upgrading their equipment and retaining nursing staff instead of taking advantage of the revolving door of rookie nurses from the nearby community college nurse factories.
Interesting take.
Nurses are a revolving door everywhere right now.
Yea but the pay at NMMC is the absolute lowest around due to the supply that will take place of any leaving.
There are lower level admin people, without degrees, that are making close to the same pay as bachelor degree level nurses entry level.
They are not hurting that bad. Also, the Amory location is great. I had to take my child to the ER there over a year ago and was blown away by the care. They are also in the process of getting ready to build more faculties around Tupelo. Starkville has a chance to be a gold mind if you do things right with the connection to State and the number of plants coming to the area.
I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject but I think a sale at this point is absolutely necessary for OCH. I have several friends that work in the system and have heard some very troubling stories that need to be fixed.
Hospitals were probably one of the few industries that didn't come out ahead on the COVID money gusher. Their operating costs went up tremendously (they were paying out the nose for masks while burning through thousands of them, they had excess cleaning costs, potentially hard infrastructure costs such as glass partitions; pay for swing staff went through the roof; they had a lot of expensive patients; had to rearrange logistics to separate covid patients, etc.) and they spent a significant amount of time not allowed to do "elective" surgeries, which includes most of their big money makers, and it's not like there's just tons of capacity to make those up. You can only do so many surgeries in a day, so that was really lost revenue, not just deferred.
All that to say, it makes sense that they would do worse after COVID, particularly if they used up a lot of liquidity to finance the purchase of amory.
COVID was the reason for the layoffs. And that was a while ago. People think hospitals made a lot of money during COVID. They didn't. Most of them lost a LOT of money to it.
All I know is if I’m dying please rush me to the Tupelo hospital because I hate long waits.
Ya'll better be ready for "BODY PARTS IN THA FREEZERS!!1!!"....
I didn't know this was news. I heard about it about a year ago.
FWIW, I think Baptist is a better option. Larger, better system. North Mississippi will turn it into Eupora.
FWIW, I think Baptist is a better option. Larger, better system. North Mississippi will turn it into Eupora.
Last year the Mrs had had it with abdominal pain. We debated whether to go to Amory or Tupelo, it’s really only a ten minute difference for us. It was Saturday so the ER was our only option. We walked in the door of the ER at 10 am at the Amory hospital. At 7 pm we walked back in our house less one appendix. That’s got to be a record.
Baptist North Miss is not a bigger or better system. That's the one looking at OCH I think.
I am sorry but this just is not correct. Baptist Memorial Hospital has 23 locations in Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. Mississippi Baptist and Memphis based Baptist Hospital combined a few years ago. This included large tertiary care hospitals in both Memphis and Jackson.
Anything that can help move the needle in health care in the Golden Triangle is a plus.
it is barely adequate, but if there is to be true recruitment of economic development initiatives, it needs to move to the next level. This is non-negotiable or else stay mired in mediocrity.
it is barely adequate, but if there is to be true recruitment of economic development initiatives, it needs to move to the next level. This is non-negotiable or else stay mired in mediocrity.
Didn't know they had combined. They are still smaller up here. Memphis and Jackson are long drives from Starkville.
Just to clarify, I basing this comment mainly on the tertiary care hospitals. To me, it doesn't matter how many podunk small hospitals, or doctors offices North Mississippi has. I believe they will simply shuttle everything possible to Tupelo. Starkville needs someone grow the local healthcare industry. Considering what Baptist has done in Oxford in the last 20 years, I think they are the best bet.
Baptist isn’t going to build up a hospital 20 minutes from one they have spent years building up. up.
Baptist vs NMHS is kind of moot here really. Either would be more way viable than OCH trying to go it alone. I’d prefer NMHS just from family and friend’s experience with both in North Mississippi. I don’t really have a dog in the hunt though.
You have an issue today, in the area, they might schedule you in Tupelo, Columbus, Meridian, etc, or parts unknown.
Just depending. That just seems to be the way it is.
Just depending. That just seems to be the way it is.
I work at Baptist golden triangle so I’m biased. Baptist does a great job of putting money into their individual hospitals and expanding services to allow care and services to be rendered there rather than be transferred to a larger Baptist hospital. Baptist recently bought Anderson in Meridian and they have been pleased with the outcomes. Historically, NMMC has funneled most things through Tupelo to build it up to compete with larger hospitals in the state. In general that comes with either cutting services or not providing new services to the smaller hospitals so they don’t compete with the mothership’s volume. Different business models with different goals.
I think Baptist would be the better group and tried to buy OCH in the past , but the Oktibbeha County Supervisors kept it from happening around 2018.
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From what I know, I think OCH’s issue for a while now has been local government interference, I.e., “We‘re accepting proposals for someone to come manage/lease OCH, which is doing horrible by the way, but we reserve the right to interfere and override management decisions.” Think this is why no other system has been willing to touch it.
Seems to be a recurring theme. Why keep your mouth shut if you don't anything? Or maybe ask questions first, before declaring false statements.
At least I will admit when I'm wrong. NMHS still has a larger presence in North Miss than Baptist.
Think that focus on Tupelo might be because their large hospital is actually IN the area and not a couple hours away?
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