Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center will have to spend $15 million on an electronic medical records system to comply with requirements of the new health care law.
That’s the major challenge facing the local hospital regarding the massive legislation, which kicks in over a period of years, Southwest Health System Chief Operations Officer Norman Price told the McComb Rotary Club Wednesday.
Price, the longtime chief executive of the local medical center, discussed the history and growth of the institution before fielding questions about present and future challenges.
The electronics record system, which Price said will be a good thing in the long run, is the most expensive mandate he foresees for the hospital under the law. That law is being challenged both in the courts and the now Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Other changes to hospital operations will be less significant, he thinks, because a large number of the hospital’s patients are already on Medicare or Medicaid, which, in effect, is government insurance. There may have to be some accounting changes, he said, adding that the impact on hospitals that depend more on private pay may be greater.
A current challenge he discussed, in answer to a question, was physician retention, which he said is more difficult than recruitment.
Noting that not many communities as small as McComb have this size medical center, Price said most doctors that leave here go to larger cities, including Atlanta and Dallas.
They do so, he said, not because “Price runs them off” but to join larger groups of physicians, enabling them to be on call less and spend more time with their families.
Price was introduced by Mayor Whitney Rawlings who called the medical center “the greatest asset in the city.”
It’s owned 45 percent by the city of McComb, 45 percent by Pike County and 10 percent by Amite County.
Price, showing pictures of the development of the facility and its ancillaries since 1969, noted SMRMC operates on zero local tax revenues, has 1,173 employees, an annual payroll of almost $69 million and revenue last year of almost $314 million.
