Memorial Hospital is expanding well beyond Gulfport. Here’s a look at what’s new.
Since August, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport has either taken over management or bought a hospital, three nursing homes, an ambulatory surgery center and several clinics.
The new facilities are part of a long-range strategic plan Memorial’s board approved earlier this year to expand services beyond Harrison and Hancock counties to all six counties in coastal Mississippi, said Chas Pierce, senior director of system development at Memorial.
Memorial is part of a nationwide trend of hospitals buying up physician practices and other health facilities. The percentage of physicians employed by hospitals or health systems was up to 44% in January 2018, from about 1 in 4 in 2012, according to a study by Avalere Health and the Physicians Advocacy Institute.
The reasons for the trend include the fact that Medicare has paid more to hospitals than independent practices for the same services, Medscape reports, plus the incentive to capture revenue from in-system physician referrals and lab orders. Industry changes such as a new nationwide coding system and increased technology also make it more cost prohibitive to run a small practice.
“A lot of these opportunities that we get — we’re not out there trying to drum up this business,” he said. The opportunities come from people “shopping around” for a buyer or lease.
Memorial has opened clinics in Jackson County over the last couple of years. And recently, the opportunity presented itself to sign a long-term lease to operate the Stone County Hospital in Wiggins, along with other facilities and services that came as part of the deal.
“It was right for everybody involved,” Pierce said. Memorial started updates at the hospital before taking over operations Nov. 1.
The expansion also is driven by competition with other health systems in South Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
“We say all the time, if we’re not growing in our market, someone else will,” Pierce said.
Memorial Hospital at Gulfport is owned by the city of Gulfport and Harrison County, with each appointing three members to the board of trustees and selecting one joint appointee, Pierce said.
The city council and county supervisors approve the final budget each year, but the board of trustees oversees operations with no taxpayer funding.
What’s new
New facilities and services recently announced by Memorial:
▪ Memorial Hospital at Stone County, operating since Nov. 1 on Central Avenue in Wiggins, already has CT, MRI, nuclear medicine and other resources for the community, he said.
Memorial is making upgrades at the Stone County hospital to secure accreditation from The Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies health care organizations nationwide.
Memorial also will add physicians and emergency services.
“Starting Nov. 1, we’ll have board-certified emergency medicine physicians in the ER 24/7,” he said. The emergency room had been staffed primarily by nurse practitioners.
Hospitalists will provide inpatient care 24/7 and telemedicine will connect patients in Wiggins to specialty services at Memorial.
A cardiologist on call at the hospital in Gulfport, for instance, could connect with a patient having heart issues in Wiggins and activate the catheterization lab while the patient is on the way to Gulfport. Otherwise, the patient would have to be assessed at the ER upon arrival and then the lab readied.
“That is blood to the tissue that we’re saving,” Pierce said. “That’s life and death.”
▪ The Surgery Center at Cedar Lake, off Interstate 10 in Biloxi also now is associated with Memorial Hospital. It has operated since 1977 as a physician-owned outpatient surgery facility.
One of the biggest advantages of this center is the convenience it offers, said Bill Hertzog, director of perioperative ambulatory services.
The staff remained the same in the transfer to Memorial, he said, and has the same education and training as those who work at the hospital.
“As the Coast grows, health care’s got to grow, too,” he said. “The growth in outpatient surgery is exponential.” One projection he heard at a recent seminar in Alabama is an 18% increase expected in outpatient surgery.
▪ Memorial’s first nursing home was acquired in Gulfport this summer and now operates as Memorial Driftwood Nursing Center, with 151 beds, plus skilled rehab and long-term care.
Two other nursing homes were added as part of the Stone County Hospital lease — Memorial Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Wiggins and Woodland Village Nursing Center in Diamondhead. These added another 200 beds and specialized dementia and Alzheimer care, said Kyle Lewis, senior director of senior care for Memorial.
Woodland also has apartments for independent living.
Because of their locations — Driftwood is on the same street as Gulfport Memorial and Memorial Stone is adjacent to the hospital — patients who transition into the skilled nursing centers have a continuum of care from many of the same providers they would have seen in the hospital, he said.
“We have just introduced a lot of services,” Lewis said, such as specialized wound care at Driftwood.
Driftwood and Stone County are the only nursing facilities in the area to have a contact with the VA for skilled or long-term care, he said.
▪ Part of the agreement to operate the hospital in Wiggins is the operation of the adjacent Stone County Family Medical Clinic and a partnership with American Medical Response to provide emergency ambulance service in Stone County.
Where to next?
With Memorial now operating in four of the six Coast counties, that leaves George and Pearl River County for expansion plans.
“I would say that we’re definitely not done,” Pierce said. But he’s not ready to announce anything.
“If there are opportunities for us to look at different hospitals in the area, we’ll do that,” he said. Or it could be ambulatory surgery centers, more clinics or whatever is needed and answers the questions, “Does it make our community healthcare better and does it make Memorial better?”
The government is focused on coordination of care, value-based payments and preventative care models, he said, and that is what drives much of this growth for Memorial. Patient records will follow them to the different facilities and physicians, he said, improving healthcare.
