OCH celebrates new affiliation with UMMC

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – A plan, months in the making, now has two hospitals joining forces.

In late June, OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville announced their affiliation with University of Mississippi Medical Center.

It was a huge turnout at OCH for the celebration Monday morning.

UMMC executives, hospital workers at OCH, and residents from the area came to ring in a new era of health care in Oktibbeha County.

“We feel like the University of Mississippi Medical Center brought a good fit to our community,” said Chair of OCH Board of Trustees, Linda Breazeale.

“We were thrilled,” said UMMC CEO, Kevin Cook. “The board here in Oktibbeha County went through an extensive selection process. It went on for several months, and we know that there were two other great health systems in the running. But we were excited, and we think the board made the right choice when they chose University of Mississippi Medical Center.”

At the celebration in Starkville, people poured in to hear from OCH and UMMC leaders on what this means for the future of the Starkville hospital.

“We can work together to cultivate more doctors and medical staff for our rural hospitals,” Breazeale said during the press conference. Later on, she added: “These are very difficult times in rural health medicine, and this is an opportunity to partner with a larger, strong health system and to move forward and bring the best healthcare to this community.”

Outside of the hospital was UMMC’s AirHealth helicopter and Critical Care transport, showing what services are now available to Starkville, but it doesn’t stop there.

“To bring a new electronic health record to Oktibbeha County,” Cook said. “We’re also in the process of evaluating what kind of telemedicine opportunities we can bring to the Golden Triangle.”

It may be the institution of The University of Mississippi coming to Starkville, but school affiliations aside, Cook says by working together in affiliations like this we can achieve better healthcare for the state.

“Working with a local community hospital like Oktibeha County is really a great opportunity for Oktibbeha County but it’s a great opportunity for us,” the CEO said. “It gives us the opportunity to really imbed ourselves into a local community and figure out how to improve the health outcomes for the citizens.”

Other services will be specialists in various medical fields that cannot be sustained on a full-time basis here at OCH.

Those will be determined based on need.

The affiliation will not officially begin for another four months.

Both hospitals still have to develop a plan for putting these various services into place, but it’s safe to say OCH is happy to have UMMC.