Like many other industries and businesses in today’s world, health care is experiencing vast change at lightning speed. North Mississippi Health Services is no exception. The health care industry is shifting, and it’s time to do something different.

Why?

Costs for labor and supplies continue to increase. At the same time, what health systems are paid to care for patients is not increasing at the same pace, which leads to financial losses.

What are we going to do?

To fulfill our mission – our responsibility to the community to continuously improve their health – we must “redesign” health care so we can continue to provide excellent care to our patients and communities.

How is NMHS going to continue to be (A) G.R.E.A.T. in the ever-changing world of health care?

A: Access to the right provider, the right services, at the right time and the right place is the start to all great outcomes. Access is a patient’s ability to use or attain health information, resources, services and products. We are expanding access geographically by adding new services in more locations, but also increasing access by working to reduce wait times and offer more specialty services.

G: We are growing key services. That includes expanding health care services to new markets and aligning with physicians in those markets.

R: We are focusing on how we are reimbursed (paid) by insurance companies. Simply by doing what we have continued to do best–providing high-quality, lower-cost care–we will be rewarded with better payment arrangements with insurers.

E: We are evolving how we perform the work. This includes empowering our frontline teammates to simplify the “work” by automating processes and eliminating duplication and hassles. We’re also creating our own talent pipeline of future healthcare workers.

A: We are looking for alternative business opportunities. Those opportunities could be partnerships with technology companies that are innovating how medicines are made or developing new products with insurance companies.

T: We are expanding our tools to help us innovate and streamline how we deliver care. This includes technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual care and new digital tools for patients to interact with us.

Just as we always have, we will meet these challenges head-on by reimagining and redesigning what we do best–continuously improving the health of the people of our region.