North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC)

North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) serves more than 700,000 people in 24 counties in north Mississippi, northwest Alabama and portions of Tennessee. In fiscal year 2023, there were 21,469 inpatient admissions, 64,605 emergency department visits, 612,727 outpatient visits, 36,312 rural health clinic visits, and 460,514 hospital based clinic visits. NMMC uses Press Ganey, the largest patient satisfaction survey company in the nation, that works with more than 7,000 healthcare facilities. Randomly selected patients are asked about their experience with NMHS inpatient, outpatient, ER, home health and long term care services. Area residents have access to a medical staff representing more than 40 medical specialties, as well as centers of excellence in cancer treatment and research, neurology, neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, cardiology, pulmonology, rehabilitation, chemical dependency and neonatal programs. In addition, the NMMC Home Health Agency serves patients in 17 counties in north Mississippi and offers many complex and extremely high-tech procedures that can be performed in the home setting. NMMC is designated as a Level II trauma center by the Mississippi State Department of Health. To receive this designation, facilities must offer a full range of trauma capabilities, including an Emergency Department, a full service surgical suite, intensive care unit and diagnostic imaging, as well as make a commitment to consistently meet national guidelines or standards in caring for trauma patients. In 2006, NMMC-Tupelo received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for innovative practices, a commitment to excellence and outstanding results. This award is a symbol of world-class performance and is the nation's highest Presidential honor for organizational performance excellence. NMMC is a participant in QUEST (Quality, Efficiency, Safety, with Transparency), a national initiative sponsored by fellow 2006 Baldrige recipient Premier. NMMC benchmarks its quality measures against the very best hospitals and health systems in the United States. This collaborative effort enables NMMC's physicians, nurses and analysts to learn from those with the best results in patient satisfaction, cost of care and appropriateness of care. QUEST is one way that NMMC is continually working to improve patient safety and quality while safely reducing health care costs. One of the primary ways North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) serves the community is by providing care to various populations for which it receives no compensation or receives compensation at rates significantly less than established rates. The Board of Directors of NMMC has established a policy under which NMMC provides care, without charge, to needy members of its community. THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE POLICY STATES THAT NMMC WILL PROVIDE EMERGENCY AND MEDICALLY NECESSARY INPATIENT AND OUTPATIENT HOSPITAL SERVICES TO PATIENTS FREE OF CHARGE WITH HOUSEHOLD INCOME LEVELS AT OR BELOW 150% OF THE FEDERAL POVERTY LEVEL. The policy applies to individuals who reside in NMMC's 24-county service area, as defined by the policy. Patients from outside the service area may also be granted charity care based on the judgment of NMMC management depending on their individual circumstances. The policy also requires the patient to cooperate fully with NMMC's request for information with which to verify the patient's eligibility. Following that policy, NMMC maintains records to identify and monitor the level of charity care it provides. These records include the amount of charges foregone for services and supplies furnished under its charity care policy. Charges foregone, based on established rates, totaled approximately $94,504,877 in fiscal year 2023. Based on the gross charges provided to charity patients compared to total hospital gross charges, 4.27% of all services in fiscal year 2023 were provided on a charity basis. The net cost of charity care provided by NMMC was approximately $32,481,829 in fiscal year 2023. The total cost estimate is based on the ratio of costs to charges for NMMC. All of the foregone charges mentioned above are netted against patient service revenue to arrive at net patient service revenue as reflected as program service revenue on Part VIII of Form 990 in order to be consistent with financial statement reporting and are not reported as functional expenses on the tax return.

North Mississippi Medical Center employs certified athletic trainers who provide services to high schools in the service area at no cost. The trainers work with the sports teams at these schools on a daily basis during practice and training, as well as at in-season competitions. The cost of providing these services was approximately $747,636 in fiscal year 2023.