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The post Marshall Ramsey: The Kraken! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

“Something Ain’t Right” produced by Audible retells the story of the Stringer family and was recorded by father Roger and son Zac. Roger calls the 2011 gun death of his younger son, Justin, as “The Happening” that changed the course of the family’s life. 

“Everything that needed to come out has come out,” Zac, who is now 27, said in an interview.

Roger said telling the story in his own voice was therapeutic. 

He grew up hunting and handling guns and passed that down to his sons. That changed June 11, 2011, when Justin died from a gunshot at the age of 12. Fifteen-year-old Zac said the trigger of his Remington Model 700 rifle went off on its own, but prosecutors, community members and his father didn’t believe that was possible. 

“I remember seeing the impact and as the rifle recoiled and it fell out of my hands, and I was just standing there numb,” Zac said in the audio memoir. “I knew immediately he’s dead. Like he’s dead, his head is gone … You can’t fix a catastrophic headwound like that.” 

At 16, Zac was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to serve 10 years in prison with 10 years probation. Because of his age, he was incarcerated at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility’s Youth Offender Unit. As an adult, Zac went to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. 

He and his father had to rebuild their relationship, even as Roger didn’t believe Zac, who maintained that the shooting was accidental and the gun shot on its own. 

He found news coverage, YouTube videos and lawsuits alleging Remington manufactured faulty triggers that went off on their own. There was an April 2014 recall of the company’s Model 700 and Model Seven rifles with XMP triggers that “could, under certain circumstances, unintentionally discharge.” 

“I feel like Remington and its string pullers have hidden behind that to avoid accountability for pushing a defective product onto the public,” Roger said in the audio memoir.

Recovering this information and connecting with other families who lost children to Remington firearms with faulty triggers helped Roger believe Zac and fight to prove that. They hired an attorney to appeal Zac’s case and tried to track down a firearms expert who would challenge the gun manufacturer and give an affidavit about defective triggers and spontaneous shooting. 

“All I want is the truth,” Roger said in an interview. “That’s all we’ve ever wanted.”

Zac was released from prison in October 2016 after serving about half of his sentence due to good behavior. 

In 2018, the Stringers filed a federal lawsuit against Remington that made it to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, but in November 2022 the suit was denied due to time limitations. 

Remington filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and in 2020, which was the year the company closed. Roger said he is watching if its players come back and begin manufacturing firearms again. 

With Zac out of prison and Remington gone, the family’s focus has been overturning Zac’s conviction. 

In 2017, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted him permission to return to the Marion County Circuit Court to ask for a new trial. 

This month, there was an examination of the gun that killed Justin at the State Crime Lab. From there, the next step is an evidentiary hearing, which could lead to a new trial where new evidence, such as the Remington recall, can be introduced, the Stringers said. 

“It would be like a vindication,” Zac said about overturning his conviction. 

That could also remove barriers in employment and the ability to own a firearm placed on Zac. He also sees the impact his conviction has in his relationships, like when he tells people for the first time that he has been in prison. 

Even if that conviction stands, Zac said he is content and that life is going well. Regardless of outcome, that may not change the view of community and family members who still believe he murdered his brother. 

Roger said getting to the truth of what happened to Justin and helping Zac overturn his conviction are connected. He sees it as a fight for both of his sons, and Roger thinks Justin would be proud. 

“The pain we’ve endured has been the fuel that has driven us to do what we’ve done,” he said. 

This isn’t the first time Roger and Zac have shared their family’s story. It doesn’t get easier to talk about Justin’s death and Zac’s incarceration, but the men said they do it to help others. 

For Roger, he wants people to be aware that there are still Remington triggers out there in the world and to help keep other families safe. 

Zac said through his story, he can share the goodness and love of the Lord. He was facing a life sentence at the age of 15, and by the grace of God, he was able to find redemption. 

“I came to understand how much this event forged me,” he said. 

Zac said working on the Audible memoir was a labor of love, which is why he’s seeking peace and a break from retelling the story again. 

Roger said his son is now getting a chance to grow up because he didn’t get to while in prison. They talk about everything and are growing closer, even as Roger sees Zac becoming more independent and self-sufficient. 

After having mental health struggles, Zac got on a better path that included a college education, spiritual support and psychological support. 

He was the first convicted felon to be admitted to William Carey University in Hattiesburg, where he graduated last year with a major in history and minor in biology. 

Zac is now working in the information technology field, which he found while attending his university. He wants to get certified in IT and maybe pursue a master’s degree. 

In the future, Zac looks forward to owning his own home, having his own family and potentially moving out of state. 

Roger’s plan is to work for a couple more years building power lines and then retire, but he plans to seek another job or find a way to stay busy. 

At home, he enjoys gardening and has been able to grow sweet corn and tomatoes in the backyard and sunflowers in a field that leads up to his house. 

The field of sunflowers attracts doves and has been the site of fall dove hunts by family and friends. Roger said the field was Justin’s idea and he first planted sunflowers the year his son died. He has continued to do it each year in Justin’s memory. 

In the mornings, he enjoys going to the field with a cup of coffee and watching the birds. 

The post One son killed, the other imprisoned for manslaughter, but was the real villain in the Columbia family’s tragedy a faulty Remington rifle trigger? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Story behind the cartoon.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Prying Eyes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large and Cartoonist Marshall Ramsey sits down with Colonel Cynthia Smith. Col. Smith is the Commander of the 186th Air Refueling Wing which is located at Key Field Air National Guard Base in Meridian, Mississippi.

The 186th Air Refueling Wing provides over 1,100 personnel and eight KC-135R aircraft to Air Mobility Command for worldwide operations and much more. Col. Smith, who is from Meridian, graduated from Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi in 1997, earning a Bachelor of Commercial Aviation with concentrations in both Flight Operations and Aviation Management and joined the Mississippi Air National Guard in 1998.

Colonel Smith talks about the mission of the Guard and reminds us all that the Guard members are our friends and neighbors.

The post Mississippi Stories: Colonel Cynthia Smith appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Fans of the rollicking world of rodeo sports can witness the International Pro Rodeo Association’s largest gathering of cowpokes in the country this month, when riders from around the world convene for the first Keath Killebrew Memorial Rodeo in Jackson, Miss.

“It’ll be the second largest rodeo in the world and the largest in the United States,” says Jeremy Smith of Deep South Rodeo, a lifetime rodeo fan and promoter. “We’re drawing cowboys and cowgirls from all over the U.S., Canada and South America, and as far as Australia.” Stakes in the contest will build through the weekend as riders compete for a $100,000 purse.

The fast-paced, action-packed weekend of rodeo events is set for July 28-29 at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. The rodeo will feature traditional favorites like bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing, with Chapel Hart capping the evening July 28 and Drake Milligan closing the event July 29. Individual tickets for both nights range from just $15 to $30 and are on sale now through Ticketmaster.

Spectators will get to enjoy a wide range of entertainment within the rodeo concept, Smith says, including an event known as bull poker in which riders take seats around a card table in the middle of the arena, while a rodeo clown taunts a bull into striking them. “We’ll turn the bull loose, and the last person seated wins the money,” he says. “You won’t see that at any other rodeo around.”

Each night, riders will also challenge their bovine adversaries in a segment of freestyle ultimate bullfighting. The cowboys and cowgirls will face a bull more or less as equals as they try to outwit and outrun them. 

Playing the role of rodeo clown is Trent McFarland, a nationally recognized performer who has perfected his entertaining act over a lifetime of rodeo performances. McFarland will play a role in some of the bullfighting events, but will also entertain the crowd between all the riding, roping and wrestling action with themed comedic skits including Talladega Nights, the Wrangler Roadster, Dr. Donothing and His Cowboy Ambulance, the Great Who-Dunn-It Magic Show and more. 

Poplarville, Miss., natives Chapel Hart became overnight national sensations in July 2022, when the family trio performed an original song, “You Can Have Him Jolene,” on the audition episode of “America’s Got Talent” season 17. For only the second time in the show’s history, judges Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandell and Heidi Klum awarded them with a Golden Buzzer, ushering them straight to the competitive rounds. Country Music Television named Chapel Hart to the 2021 class of Next Women of Country, and they released their third album, Glory Days, in 2023.

Drake Milligan, a country singer who hails from Mansfield, Texas, landed the role of Elvis Presley in the 2017 CMT series “Sun Records,” and placed third in season 17 of “America’s Got Talent.” In September 2022, Stoney Creek Records released his debut album, Dallas/Fort Worth, and landed the song “Sound Like Something I’d Do” in the top 40 of country music airplay in January 2023.

Proceeds from the rodeo will benefit the Keath Killebrew Charisma Award Fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, established to help encourage and educate the next generation of Mississippi farmers by awarding scholarships to young men and women interested in working in the agricultural field.

The Keath Killebrew Memorial Rodeo’s namesake, an ambitious Delta farmer, father, husband, artist and entrepreneur, died in a plane crash in December 2021 while scouting for a new farming venture in Paraguay. The lifelong Mississippian farmed cotton, soybeans, rice, peanuts, wheat and watermelon across six counties throughout the Delta and surrounding hills from Senatobia to Flora. 

Keath’s curiosity and zeal for life also led him to raise cattle, tend bees and teach welding at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. At age 40, he expanded his passion for capturing the magic of Delta landscapes from photography to painting, a hobby he shared with his wife, licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Alyssa Killebrew, who survives him along with their children. The Killebrew family is spearheading these efforts so his legacy can inspire others.

“Keath truly lived his life like he was preparing for a bull ride,” Alyssa says. “He was always creating new ventures with his businesses and always excited to work hard, and that’s what bull riding and preparing for rodeos is all about. You know you’re gonna get bucked off, and he did many times as he was trying to build a farm operation. But he always got back on and always kept trying.”

The post Largest International Pro Rodeo in the country coming to Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today has been recognized in multiple categories of the 2023 Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Awards, a prestigious annual competition that recognizes the best journalism in the Southeast.

“We take great pride that our newsroom is constantly publishing high-impact journalism and working tirelessly to serve Mississippians,” said Adam Ganucheau, editor-in-chief of Mississippi Today. “It’s always rewarding to be honored among not only some of our in-state peers, but also among some really great journalists around the region. These are some much deserved honors for our dedicated team.”

The awards honor journalism published in 2022 and are open to journalists and news organizations from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Mississippi Today won or placed in eight different categories, including the first place prize in the overall digital journalism division.

“Last year was full of big, breaking news stories out of Mississippi like the Jackson water crisis, the fall of Roe v. Wade, and new details on the largest embezzlement scandal in state history. Our journalists covered these events and so much more with empathy and accuracy,” said Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner. “It’s an honor for this work to be recognized alongside so many other great news outlets in the Southeast.”

Mississippi Today was recognized in the following categories:

Division winner, digital:

• First Place: Mississippi Today – Anna Wolfe, The Backchannel

Deadline reporting:

• Second Place: Mississippi Today – Staff, Jackson Water Crisis Collection

Non-deadline reporting:

• First Place: Mississippi Today – Isabelle Taft, Abortion in Mississippi

• Third Place: Mississippi Today – Molly Minta, Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory

Investigative reporting:

• First Place: Mississippi Today – Anna Wolfe, The Backchannel

Serious Commentary

• First Place: Mississippi Today – Adam Ganucheau

Sports Reporting

• Second Place: Mississippi Today – Rick Cleveland for his coverage of Ole Miss’ historic World Series win 

Sports Commentary

• First Place: Mississippi Today – Rick Cleveland

Business Reporting

• Second Place: Mississippi Today – Geoff Pender & Sara DiNatale for their coverage of the state’s burgeoning medical marijuana program

Politics Reporting

• First Place: Mississippi Today – Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison & Anna Wolfe for their coverage of political issues across the state

View the full list of winners here.

The post Mississippi Today journalists win multiple Green Eyeshade Awards appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The U.S. District Court audience saw the gamut of Judge Henry Wingate’s moods over a two-day status conference updating him on the latest with Jackson’s water system.

The tedious proceedings covered a wide range of issues Wingate sought answers to, including water quality and public engagement.

Wingate initially called the conference after City Attorney Catoria Martin relayed in previous meetings that members of the public were concerned with how the system has been handled in the seven months since third-party manager Ted Henifin assumed control of Jackson’s water utility.

At times, the Jackson-native judge was affable, sharing memories of marching with Medgar Evers and serving on a board at Tougaloo College. Other times, he was less patient. Wingate called out Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba multiple times, including over having side conversations and for using his cellphone during proceedings, despite others having their phones out as well.

Advocates and community members, as they told the court, are specifically frustrated over how little communication there’s been between Henifin’s company, JXN Water, and the public about how money has been spent, how contract work has been decided, and Henifin’s persistent statements that the water is safe to drink despite residents seeing discolored and odorous water from their taps.

Rukia Lumumba, co-founder of the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition — as well as Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s sister — requested Wingate allow a community ambassador to engage with the court and Jackson water in future decision-making.

“We’re too often only considered after decisions have been made,” she said about public involvement.

Rukia Lumumba, who also is a candidate for House District 72 in Hinds and Madison counties, requested that Wingate make JXN Water subject to public record laws. Despite having control of a public utility and spending government dollars, JXN Water is a non-government entity and has broad authority under Wingate’s order last year. The company isn’t subject to public record or contract procurement laws.

Danyelle Holmes, National Social Justice organizer with the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, asked Wingate to release all contracts, salaries and resumes of companies JXN Water has hired thus far.

With a small staff of just five employees, Henifin said his plan is to rely heavily on contracting to carry out the water system rehabilitation.

Based on press releases and events, JXN Water has publicized at least three contracts it’s executed: one with Stantec to repair water line leaks, one with a call center in Rankin County to create a 24/7 helpline, and another with Jacobs Engineering to staff the water treatment plants.

Otherwise, JXN Water has put out little information about its contracts, such as what bids they’ve received, exact terms of the contracts and other details that a government entity would have to share with taxpayers.

Residents also told Wingate they were disappointed that Henifin hired out-of-state companies for contracts and didn’t establish a call center in Jackson. Henifin responded that his priority is to work with qualified companies who can help immediately. He added that he’s worked with local firms whenever possible and will continue to seek work from Black-owned businesses.

Wingate and Henifin continually pointed to the progress that’s been made in a short period: nearly 200 water leak repairs, 90 valves closed and normal water pressure for almost every home. Henifin said some homes in south Jackson still have pressure issues because of their distance from the treatment plant, and that he’s planning to eventually put those homes on the city’s well system.

Water quality

After last month’s status conference when Henifin repeated that the water is safe to drink, residents expressed skepticism to the media and in social media posts, showing images of brown water from their taps.

Color and odor are what Henifin called “secondary” standards, meaning they don’t indicate the water is unsafe to drink. But as Rukia Lumumba told the court Thursday, residents might not know that, and she suggested holding educational sessions to explain the city’s water testing and why it’s safe despite appearances.

“If I’m looking at brown water, I wouldn’t think it’s safe,” Holmes said in her testimony.

Wingate responded that he wouldn’t want to drink that water either.

Holmes also argued that, just because water is safe leaving the plant, it doesn’t mean that the water is safe at people’s homes, where aging pipes are more likely to carry lead. In response, Wingate questioned who should be responsible for fixing pipes on private property. Later in the hearing, Martin, the city’s attorney, said that, while the city couldn’t spend its own money to fix pipes on private property, there are federal programs that make such funding available, including $15 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

‘We still have much room for improvement‘

Speakers during the status conference emphasized they wanted Jacksonians to have more involvement in Henifin’s decision-making, and that they felt let down with how little public engagement there’s been from JXN Water in recent months.

Brooke Floyd, director of the JXN People’s Assembly, said she lost pressure or water completely three times in the last month and a half at her northeast Jackson home. She wondered why she hadn’t received a boil water notice, which she’d typically finds on the state Department of Health’s website.

Henifin has tried to overhaul the way the city issues boil water notices. In the past, he explained, the city could only test water pressure from its treatment plants and couldn’t narrow down which parts of Jackson actually needed to boil their water.

Despite establishing a new 24/7 call center — which residents can reach at (601) 500-5200 — Henifin admitted “we still have much room for improvement with communications.” He also said in a press release that JXN Water has a “blind spot” in keeping Latino residents informed.

The post Federal judge hears residents’ input on JXN Water’s work thus far appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dr. Samuel Brown left Merit Health Central in May after nearly two decades delivering babies there, and he said one of the reasons was he no longer felt safe performing C-sections at a hospital with no surgery department.

The south Jackson hospital, which is one of nine Merit Health hospitals in the state, began cutting services last year. One of those was general surgery – another, the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

“I mean, if you do a surgery and get into somebody’s bowel and you don’t have a surgeon on staff, what are you supposed to do?” Brown, who now lives in Florida, told Mississippi Today. “That’s just common sense … It was risky to operate there.”

Guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say facilities designated as a Level 2 and higher according to its levels of maternal care model should have a general surgeon available at all times for obstetric patients. The same is not required for Level 1 facilities.

At Merit Health Central, no general surgeons are present at the hospital because the surgery department was cut last year. However, it’s unclear whether the hospital is meeting ACOG’s guidelines – participating in this designation is not required, so it’s unknown what level Merit Health Central would qualify as.

The hospital is a level 4 trauma facility, which are generally small, rural hospitals with the commitment to resuscitate and transfer trauma patients to higher-level facilities.

Melanie McMillan, the marketing manager for Merit Health, said financial hardships have led the health system to take steps to “reduce duplication” across its five Jackson-area hospitals. This has resulted in “the consolidation of some services – including surgeries – with already existing services at other Merit Health hospitals in the Jackson area.” 

The hospital in October ended its operative services, including orthopedics, neurology, urology and general surgery. It closed its burn center – the only such accredited program in the state – in September, and moved its cardiovascular services, neonatal intensive care unit and endoscopy to its facilities in the suburbs. 

McMillan said Merit Health Central currently offers labor and delivery services and a well baby nursery. Three obstetricians deliver babies at the hospital.

A 2019 study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology MFM showed among 648,584 cesarean delivery hospitalizations nationwide, surgical errors occurred in almost 2%. The most common were anesthetic errors, errors involving blood vessels and errors involving the bladder.

Brown was disappointed by the decisions being made about the hospital by leadership and the Nashville-based company that owns Merit Health, Community Health Systems.

When the hospital closed the NICU, he was outspoken about the negative impact it would have on high-risk mothers and babies.

“This community is the community that needs doctors … because of obesity and preterm labor, diabetes, hypertension, all that stuff affects pregnancy,” Brown said at the time. “And those are the patients that are going to need high-risk doctors or the NICU. And the fact is, that the NICU is gone. It’s just not a good thing for this community.”

Brown also said an executive with CHS told him the company was not going to put any money into that hospital and would move its profitable operations elsewhere.

McMillan did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about the alleged statement.

Merit Health Central, formerly Hinds General Hospital, has long been a health care and employment hub in south and west Jackson — majority-Black neighborhoods that have a higher concentration of people living in poverty than the rest of the city.

According to U.S. Census data, the neighborhood the hospital is located in is 87% Black and 9% white. The median income for families is $29,500. 

Merit Health Central incurred just shy of $16 million in net uninsured costs, or the cost of services for which the patient had no insurance coverage, in fiscal year 2022. That is the largest amount of uncompensated care of any Merit Health hospital in the state that year.

The post OB-GYN leaves Merit Health Central, cites ‘risky’ conditions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

GREENVILLE — Hours after yet another Mississippi hospital announced it was laying off workers this year, the leader of a hospital in the Mississippi Delta criticized Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for refusing to expand Medicaid access to the working poor. 

Iris Stacker, the CEO of Delta Health Systems in Greenville, spoke at a Tuesday campaign event for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley and said if the federal program covered more people, then the local economy would be more robust. 

“We don’t understand why Tate Reeves doesn’t understand why he needs a healthy workforce,” Stacker said. 

Hospitals across the state have recently slashed their staff, discontinued medical services or closed their doors permanently because of financial pressures within their organizations.

• North Mississippi Health Services in Tupelo announced Tuesday it was laying off employees, cutting their hours and reassigning them to different jobs.
• Ochsner Health, which operates several facilities in Mississippi, announced in May it was cutting hundreds of jobs.
• Memorial Hospital in Gulfport announced layoffs just days before the Oschner announcement.
• In June, St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson announced it was cutting 5.5% of its workforce and ending its behavioral health program.
• KPC Promise, a hospital in Vicksburg, closed last month. 
• And Delta Health, led by Stacker, last year closed its NICU unit, leaving the Delta region, one of the most impoverished areas in the nation, without a neonatal center.

One of the primary reasons Stacker and other hospital leaders support Medicaid expansion is their belief that it would reduce the amount of uncompensated care that medical workers provide to patients without health insurance. 

The 40 other U.S. states that have expanded Medicaid have seen a significant drop in uncompensated care costs post-expansion. Louisiana, which expanded Medicaid in 2016, saw a 55% decrease in uncompensated care costs for rural hospitals.

Last year, Delta Health spent about $26 million on uncompensated care, Stacker previously said. That amounts to about 15% of its total operating expenses. 

“We still continue to have uncompensated care every day,” Stacker told Mississippi Today on Tuesday. 

READ MORE: FAQ: What is Medicaid expansion, really?

The governor’s office and his campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but he has repeatedly objected to the program’s expansion, derisively calling it “welfare” or labeling it “Obamacare.” Instead, Reeves believes a law requiring medical facilities to seek approval from a state agency before they create a new health care center should be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Presley is strongly advocating for Medicaid expansion in his bid to unseat Reeves in November. More than a dozen health care professionals endorsed the Democratic candidate on Tuesday.

Mississippi is one of 10 states that has not passed any form of Medicaid expansion. Economic experts say the remaining states, many in the Deep South, would experience an economic boon if officials expanded the program. Studies show that Mississippi is leaving more than $1 billion in new health care related revenue on the table every year it does not expand.

Medical leaders have pleaded for state leaders to expand the program under the federal Affordable Care Act to draw down on additional funds. If the program were expanded, the federal government would likely cover 90% of the costs while the state contributed a 10% matching rate. 

Much like in 2019, Medicaid coverage and access to health care are some of the primary issues between the two leading candidates in this year’s governor’s race.

Attorney General Jim Hood embraced Medicaid expansion throughout the last statewide campaign cycle, but Reeves still captured nearly 52% of the general election vote. 

Presley, the current utility regulator from north Mississippi, is hoping the continuing spate of hospital closures will encourage more voters to be receptive to his pro-expansion message during the current election cycle. 

Dr. Brett Zepponi, a Delta Health physician, told Mississippi Today that he considers himself a fiscal conservative, but he’s currently planning to vote for Presley because he doesn’t think the Greenville hospital can last much longer without expanding Medicaid coverage. 

“For me, it doesn’t come down to a political thing,” Zepponi said. “But it’s more of a people thing. I think Republicans and Democrats both want their family to be taken care of and want their neighbors taken care of.” 

The post ‘Tate Reeves doesn’t understand’: Hospital CEO slams governor for refusing Medicaid expansion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The March inspection of the University of Mississippi Medical Center for its burn center designation showed the health system failed to fully meet almost a third of criteria required to host the state’s next burn center, though it was recently deemed qualified to do so anyway. 

UMMC communications officials refused to answer Mississippi Today’s questions about the current status of its burn program, including its staff’s training. A Facebook post, however, shows that since the health system’s application to host a burn center was submitted and the subsequent site visit was conducted, more staff have undergone the training required to care for burn patients. 

The Mississippi Department of Health said UMMC has submitted a corrective action plan to address the shortcomings, but declined to provide it without a records request. UMMC officials refused to engage with Mississippi Today about such a plan. 

The surgeon on the team that performed UMMC’s March site visit said the results of their site visit are not uncommon.

Dr. William Hickerson, who helped establish Memphis’ Firefighters Regional Burn Center and served as the past president of the American Burn Association, said the health system has what it needs to establish a burn center.

“My impression was that they have set things up very well,” he said. “You’re not going to be able to open your doors and say, ‘Bring them (the patients) home.’ This is not the Field of Dreams … You have to have a team approach. Everything has to be in a learned environment, and you start slowly like these guys are and build up now. And I think that that is exactly what we saw and what their plans were that they showed us.”

The Institutions of Higher Learning last month approved UMMC’s request to use $4 million of its own money to create a new burn center. The hospital system will renovate the first floor of the Batson Tower into a new burn unit, with ICU beds and rooms for patients recovering from surgery.

Officials visited UMMC on March 21 to review the health system’s credentials and see if it was qualified to host the state’s next burn center. That team consisted of Hickerson, Terry Collins, a nurse who directs the trauma program for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Teresa Windham, a trauma system nurse in the state Health Department’s Bureau of Acute Care Systems.

In May, Mississippi Today requested the results of that visit. 

Originally, a state Health Department attorney said the survey was exempt from disclosure and cited costs that totaled nearly $20,000 for communications regarding the visit.

After Mississippi Today asked the department to cite state law that exempted the survey results, however, a Health Department official attached the survey in an email thread. 

The results of the survey showed that out of 155 categories, UMMC either “partially met” or did not meet criteria in 46, or 29.6%, of the categories. 

Though UMMC was docked in the report for not having an internal burn education plan in addition to lacking certain required staff, policies and procedures, the survey results showed they excelled in team coordination, specifically between its trauma and burn surgeons. 

“This cooperative plan is one of the best these reviewers have witnessed,” the report says. 

Since the state’s only burn center housed at Merit Health Central in Jackson closed in October, both UMMC and Mississippi Baptist Medical Center have vied for the designation. Despite gaps in both its application to host a burn center and this site visit, UMMC received its approval in April from the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

“I’ve been through several hospitals and several reviews, and we don’t come in to rubber stamp anything. It’s to give an honest opinion of what we see the capabilities are, and we report the findings,” Hickerson said. “I know there’s a competition. I’m on neither side. I’m here to give you the facts of what I see.”

A director of an out-of-state burn center and officials with the American Burn Association declined to comment on how UMMC’s site survey results compare to others who have been approved to host a burn center. 

State Health Department spokesperson Liz Sharlot responded to questions about UMMC’s qualifications with an emailed statement that included information about the state’s Trauma System of Care and their goal of enabling “access in Mississippi, rather than out of state, for burn patients and their families.”

Mississippi Today found in February that UMMC had sent at least one burn pediatric patient out-of-state for treatment. 

“Keeping this goal a priority, MSDH works with entities seeking a burn center designation to ensure that safe and effective care is provided through a well defined operational plan for clinical care and service delivery,” the Health Department’s statement reads. “Such plans may include corrective actions for any deficiencies noted to allow entities to continue to build their burn care programs. This process includes a revisit or focused visit to ensure corrective actions are taken to maintain a burn center designation.”

Hickerson said that it’s common to check in with burn centers a year after their establishment to ensure they’re in full compliance, but as of his March visit, he believes the health system is capable of hosting a burn center. 

“The whole aspect is to make sure that you set something up that is going to be safe for the patients,” he said. “Yeah, they didn’t have a complete check. But they had means that they were gonna fix that.”

At the time of the survey, UMMC was still actively recruiting for staff, including nurses, pharmacists, dietitians and psychiatrists. The report also showed that the health center struggled with ongoing burn education and internal training. At the time of its application, which was submitted earlier this year, an internal burn education program was being developed.

The site survey reports that the burn center medical director, Dr. Peter Arnold, has the required criteria to lead the unit, which can be achieved two ways. The first includes being a surgeon with board certification in surgery or plastic surgery and completing a one-year fellowship in burn treatment. The second route is experience in the care of patients with acute burn injuries for two or more years during the previous five years. 

However, it’s unclear how Arnold meets those criteria  — Arnold has not completed a one-year burn fellowship and has been at UMMC for the past five years, while the state’s only burn center has been housed at Merit. 

Furthermore, the survey also says that as burn center director, Arnold did not perform some of the required job duties, including creating policies and protocols for the burn care system and cooperating with trauma care for patient treatment.

At the time of the report, Arnold was not current in Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS), the standard training for burn patient providers. He was scheduled to undergo this training in April, but UMMC refused to answer questions about whether that training took place. 

The health system’s initial application also showed that none of its staffers were ABLS trained, though a Facebook post from May on the University of Mississippi’s Air Care page showed that 48 clinicians and communication specialists had undergone ABLS training.

Additionally, UMMC staff likely attended ABLS training at the Mississippi Trauma Symposium in May in Biloxi.

Arnold said in May at a presentation about the burn center that one of his goals moving forward was to acquire American Burn Association verification for the center. 

“We’re designing everything we’re doing to meet the goals of ABA verification,” he said. “It takes two years after you’re established before they’ll come. And so I think, you know, this is obviously a work in progress, but eyes on the prize.”

During this year’s session, the state Health Department was given $4 million by the Legislature to choose the state’s next burn center. Nothing in the law prevents the $4 million from going to more than one hospital. 

Baptist Medical Center has also submitted an application to host the state’s next burn center, which includes its burn center director’s qualifications to lead the unit, two ABLS-trained staffers and an internal burn education plan. Its site visit has been scheduled for July 18.

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