University Physicians, a part of University of Mississippi Health Care, is preparing to branch out by opening a $14 million satellite clinic in Rankin County.
A June 30 groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for University Physicians-Grants Ferry, located at the corner of Lakeland Place and Plaza Drive in Flowood. The new 50,575 square-foot medical office building is slated for completion the second quarter of 2010 and will house primary care and specialty services, such as family medicine, internal medicine, orthopedics, urology, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, otolaryngology, dermatology, audiology, rheumatology, and allergy.
The mission is simple: Take the expertise of faculty physicians off campus to serve the needs of the community where patients live.
Various factors led to the historic move, but the goal is to attract more patients in a time of increasing demands brought on by growth of the education programs.
Dr. Scott Stringer, president of University Physicians and associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs, said the Medical Center's growth has outpaced state funding, and to fulfill the institution's missions of educating tomorrow's health professionals and caring for the medically underserved, an expansion of community services was necessary.
"The strategy that's been identified by both outside consultants, the leadership here and institutions around the country is that you have to improve your number of insured patients," Stringer said.
"The Medical Center has been expected to be able to provide much of its financial support. We have a $1.1 billion budget and we get roughly $200 million from the state. The other $900 million comes from somewhere, and that's generally through research grants and clinical care."
Cogdell Spencer ERDMAN, the construction company for the project, has broken ground on the 6.85 acres in Flowood. Parent company, Cogdell Spencer Inc., will own the clinic and University Physicians will master lease 100 percent of the facility. University Hospitals and Health System will provide additional medical support services.
"We are pleased to be working with University Physicians to provide state-of-the-art medical facilities for Flowood and the surrounding communities," said Susan Dorr, president of Cogdell Spencer's southeast region.
Stringer said Flowood is a rapidly growing area with fewer services for health care than other areas, which influenced the decision to locate a satellite clinic there. He said Rankin County residents can expect rapid, convenient service at the Grants Ferry clinic with the added confidence of knowing that they have access to the UMMC main campus for health issues that require more complex care.
Faculty physicians will see the patients, but residents and medical students will shadow and work in tandem with them. Stringer said that's a common model for many academic medical centers, such as the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
"Everybody thinks that when you go there you're going to see a faculty physician, and you do, but you also see residents and medical students. We're moving to a model of combined care rather than resident-driven care," he said.
With the expansion of the medical school class, additional faculty must be hired to teach. A shortage of doctors nationwide also impacts academic medical centers' bottom lines because they must compete with private hospitals and clinics to recruit faculty.
"To have those teachers, you have to pay them competitive salaries. "If we can't practice medicine we don't have patients for teaching, and we can't pay for the teachers" he said.
Stringer said opening satellite clinics in other areas of the state will be considered in the future. "It's our mission to provide health care to those who need our services in the state of Mississippi and we need to be located wherever we can best meet that mission," he said.
Still, Stringer said that UMMC will never stray from its core mission of education.
"We're here for education, No. 1, and everything we do should support the educational mission. That's the motivation," he said.
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