Bishop Retires After 41 Years at NMHS

Social worker Randi Bishop of Case Management recently retired after more than 41 years with North Mississippi Health Services.

Randi has spent the last nine years as a social worker in the Critical Care Unit, where the need is always great. “It’s so rewarding to help patients and families who are going through the worst they will ever go through in their life,” Randi says. “It’s great just to be able to be there for them and help them get what they need.”

Randi graduated from high school in Cherokee, Alabama, in 1975 and earned her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of North Alabama in Florence in 1979. She was hired in 1980 as the first full-time social worker at North Mississippi Medical Center-Iuka.

After 19 years, Randi began splitting her time evenly between the Iuka and Tupelo hospitals. In 2000, she accepted a position with the Case Management Department at NMMC-Tupelo, where she worked on 6 South for 13 years.

Over the last four decades, Randi has seen her share of change. “When I first started, a social work assessment would be two to three handwritten pages,” she says. “When I needed to make a referral to another facility, I would have to drive it over. Fax machines and now automation have really helped us.”

While she looks forward to retirement, leaving behind her CCU coworkers is bittersweet. “I love this team,” Randi says. “They just amaze me with the things they do every day.”

But retirement will allow her and her husband, Jim, who worked in Security at NMMC for several years, to travel to spend more time with family. Her son Wesley Remkus, and his wife, Brianna, live in Birmingham, Alabama, with their children—Eden, 7; Evie, 4 and Elle, 9 months. Daughter Amy Remkus lives in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and son Richie Taylor lives in Bartlett, Illinois. She also looks forward to helping her mother, Rose Hayes of Cherokee.