re: "We do not believe that the IHL Board was justified in its decision"

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Is there any recourse or way to reverse this?

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My understanding is that it is an expiring contract and that all they really decided was not to extend. He wasn't fired or terminated. Not sure those facts would lead to any court being able to intervene.

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University of Mississippi Medical Center officials on Tuesday defended it from criticism by state College Board officials, who cited problems with UMMC in their decision not to renew the contract of Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones.

"I'm proud of the medical center," said Dr. James Keeton, the former vice chancellor. "We're very transparent about what we do."

UMMC informs the board as well as the legislative and executive branches, he said.

Over the past five years, UMMC has handled $7 billion, Keeton said. "There has never been any malfeasance or fraud. There has been no loss of money."

In a letter Tuesday, all 22 chairs at UMMC's medical school called on the state College Board to reverse its decision, saying the medical center is "in very strong financial shape and reinvests all of its excess revenue in improving the health of the citizens of Mississippi."

In defending the board's decision for ousting Jones, Alan Perry, vice president of the board, accused UMMC of not being "very efficient."

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of UMMC and dean of the medical school, said the institution has invested $100 million since 2010 to improve business practices, including electronic bookkeeping, which now includes contracts.

Prior to 2012, UMMC kept all its records on paper, and each department operated independently at times, Keeton said. "There was some sloppiness under the paper model prior to 2012."

A board-ordered review found 32 contracts of more than $250,000 in which UMMC had failed to get board approval.

Keeton responded that some of those contracts were UMMC's internal departments doing business with each other and that UMMC didn't realize at the time that the board had to be informed. There were also federal contracts that UMMC didn't realize the board had to be informed about, he said.

He talked as well about emergency contracts that UMMC signed then and now for immediate health care needs. For instance, UMMC had to order an extra portable heart-lung machine from Nashville, he said. "I signed the contract in the truck."

Perry said UMMC had failed to produce documents related to contracts being questioned.

UMMC officials say every contract now is available electronically.

Perry singled out a gamma knife — a piece of sophisticated medical equipment used to operate on brain tumors — UMMC bought but had never installed.

"That suggests an organization is not very efficient," Perry said. "It showed problems had existed for years."

Keeton said when UMMC sought in 2009 to get state Health Department approval for a linear accelerator, which was purchased with the knife, other hospitals fought them. In 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled in UMMC's favor.

The original plan was to locate the knife at UMMC, but because of the immense weight, the knife is being moved to the Jackson Medical Mall, Keeton said.

Both Keeton and Woodward said claims that UMMC is inefficient is simply false.

In 2003, UMMC was a $500 million operation. Now it's three times that size with 9,600 employees and 3,000 students — all from Mississippi.

So far this fiscal year ending in July, UMMC has a "profit" of about $35 million, Keeton said. "We're touted nationally for what we're doing."

Sally O'Callahan, associate director of contract administration, said UMMC has paid for the state College Board reviews.

The first, by a local accounting firm, cost about $230,000, she said. UMMC has yet to get the bill for the latest review, done by a national firm out of Chicago.

Perry portrayed Jones as standing in the way of changes at UMMC, but Woodward said Jones was the one who started the transformation of UMMC as vice chancellor there.

"Dr. Jones made more changes than we had experienced in previous 20 years," she said. "He put in a new management team ... and brought about tremendous culture changes. To say no changes were made is not true."

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gamemc

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