FEATURE STORY

North Sunflower Medical Center is expanding
Ruleville hospital plans for improvements
By Doreen Muzzi
DBJ Editor

Four years ago, the North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville, Miss., was in dire financial straights, grasping at straws for ways to keep the doors open. Today, the hospital is in the black, has re-established its reputation for quality medical care, and soon will begin construction on a $5 million wellness center.
Officials at the county-owned hospital are awaiting approval of a USDA grant to begin construction on the 22,000-square-foot wellness center. The facility will include a wound care center with a hyperbaric chamber, a diabetes education center, both inside and outside walking tracks, exercise equipment, physical therapy services and a community education center. Construction is expected to begin within 18 months.
In a four-year time period, Ruleville’s North Sunflower Medical Center has gone from making $8 million annually to netting $25 million in annual revenue.
The hospital’s rural health clinic, open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to midnight, is a factor in the hospital’s turnaround. In the fall of 2004, the clinic treated 120 patients per month, was rarely used, and was located in a quiet spot behind the hospital. Today, clinic personnel treat an average of 2,200 patients per month, a 5,000 percent increase.
Another financial turning point was a switch in designation to critical access status, which allows for Medicare reimbursements of cost-plus-one percent. “About 85 percent of the patients we serve use Medicare insurance. About five percent of our patients have private insurance or Medicaid, and about 10 percent is indigent care,” explains North Sunflower Medical Center Administrator Billy Marlow.
In addition, the hospital operates a Home Health Agency in four Mississippi counties, a 60-bed nursing home facility, a geriatric psychiatry unit, an intensive outpatient psychiatry center, and a durable medical equipment company.
“We all remember wondering where the next paycheck would come from when the hospital was experiencing financial difficulties. Now that the hospital is back on its feet again, we wanted to do something to secure the long-term stability of the hospital,” says Marlow.
That prompted the development of the North Sunflower Medical Foundation, incorporated as a 501c3 in July of 2007. The foundation, Marlow says, allows things to be accomplished that normally couldn’t be afforded through the hospital’s general budget. “My goal is to raise enough funds to make a noticeable difference with the interest earned and never touch the principle,” he says.
The foundation’s first major goal is the construction of a $150,000 memorial garden adjoining the hospital. Plans are for a chapel, bell tower and memorial wall, with several naming opportunities available to donors. Hospital officials say construction of the memorial garden will run concurrent with construction on the hospital’s wellness center.
Included in the foundation’s fundraising plan is an employee contribution program. Hospital employees donate a percentage of their salary every pay period to belong to the Foundation, with $75,000 deducted from paychecks annually in 2007.
A wish list for program funds includes a mammography machine, a program to help provide educational assistance to the hospital’s 290 employees, a surgery department, lab and radiology upgrades, and an outpatient area with increased patient privacy.
Another program planned by the foundation is a candy striper youth development program, funding uniform expenses and orientation training. “We want to show the youth in our area that you don’t have to be a nurse to work in the medical field,” says Marlow. “We also want, as a foundation, to provide educational services to our community.”
Already initiated is a workplace wellness program, which consists of Lunch and Learn educational sessions covering topics such as healthy heating and stress, as well as health challenges available to hospital employees.
For more information, or to donate to the North Sunflower Medical Foundation, call Foundation Director Sarah
Deason at (662) 756-4129, or e-mail sarah.deason@nsmedicalfoundation.org. DBJ



                                                                       <HOME>