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Voice of Business by the Hancock Chamber of Commerce
Power Hour Coffee Call with Ted Longo & Timmy Thrash
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On This Episode: Ted Longo & Timmy Thrash
What does it take to build a stronger Hancock County?
Join host Ted Longo of the Longo Group as he sits down with Timmy Thrash, AVP of Ochsner Medical Hancock, for a conversation about leadership, community, and the opportunities shaping the future of Hancock County. From economic development and business growth to the importance of community involvement, this episode offers valuable insight from two individuals who are deeply invested in the success of our region.
Whether you're a business owner, community leader, or simply passionate about where we live, work, and play, you'll enjoy this engaging discussion about the people, partnerships, and vision driving Hancock County forward.
Tune in to hear their perspectives, learn more about what’s happening across the county, and discover why collaboration remains one of our community’s greatest strengths.
Engaged with the chamber promotion and to entice people to get engaged. We are going to be giving away a free trip to Belize, which is being donated by the owner of the Mahogany Resort in Belize. He's a college friend monument, and so you can tell me if you ever need a donation, I'll so this is great because it gives us you know a date and time, a reason to hey, I better go to that. It only takes a few minutes to go to this event, and you can sign up. And so, how you do that is on your tables, you see a QR code. Um, Mary Cowan has now gotten everything digitized. So now instead of filling out a little piece of paper, you can just uh take a picture of that QR code. And every time you come to a chamber event, not a chamber board meeting, not a chamber committee meeting, but a chamber event like this, you can register to win this free trip to Belize. We will be drawing on December 9th at the December after hours at the club at Diamond Head, and one person will walk away the lucky winner of this trip. So I'm very excited about that. Also, we announced at the mid-year meeting all these new programs. These programs are now open for applications. June 1, we open applications for all of our programs except for the basic AI training program that's going to come in October. So I encourage you to encourage yourself and others to sign up for Leadership Hancup County. Applications are open until July 31st. It's one of the most amazing programs that we do as a chamber. If you haven't done it, we encourage you to do it. There is a $595 fee, which is like one-third of the total cost that we charge when you compare it with other chambers in the region. So I encourage you to do that. We also have announced a new emerging leaders program. I just talked with a few of you about that earlier this morning. We're looking for the top 20 emerging leaders under 40 who could be part of this new class. And it's going to be sort of the precursor to leadership handcuff. And the only commitment that you have to make is first of all that your company is a member of the chamber. Your company then nominates you to be considered as one of the top 20 emerging leaders, and there is no cost to your company, it's a benefit of your membership. And what your emerging leader does is once a month, starting in September, they come to a breakfast meeting from 8 to 9:30 and they learn a new leadership skill, and they also hear an update from a community leader. So it's a great precursor to leadership can come. The Catalyst grant program. We have a $50,000 donation from Mississippi Power Company. That grant program has opened and it will be open until July 31st. This is a matching grant program. So if you as a small business owner put up a thousand dollars, we will then match it with another $1,000. Our goal is to be able to help as many businesses as possible this year, and our goal is to help at least 35 businesses with matching grants up to $1,500 per grant. So please take a look at that. Everything that you want to know is on the Hancock Chamber website, handcockchamber.org. You can go on there, you can find out more, you can actually submit your application. So help us get the word out about these programs and these opportunities for the small business sector of our community. And now, without further ado, let me thank our sponsors of this amazing uh power hour comfy com and to Ted Longo, who is really the founder of the Power Hour Company Comm. The Longo Group. Take it away.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. Thank you, Chim. Like going on, and thank all of y'all for being here. The weather forecast looks bad for like another week or something, so thank you all to be here. It's good crowd. And you know, the last time we were here, we were introduced, it was an MRI, right? That unbelievable state-of-the-art MRI thing, and we got Jeff Edge promoted. I'm just saying, maybe it's time. It's wonderful to have you here. And and so, Timmy, tell us a little bit about your stuff. You're also from the coast like Jeff was, right?
SPEAKER_09I am. I've been on the coast my whole life, other than when I was at school. And you know, my career started as an X-ray tech from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. From Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, I worked with Tenant Health Care Facility. It was a place in Biloxi. Um, then the hurricane came through there and shut that facility down. I actually transferred it over to Auctioner. A little story around the auctioner. You know, my cousin has had two double lung transplants through Auctioner. And that was just a passion of mine. That kind of drew me there. So I joined Auctioner and it was brought to my attention to Auctioner and purchasing this facility. You know, they came to me and asked me if I would be interested in coming over here, and I was like, absolutely. I'm closer to home. You know, I've lived in Gulfport, like I said, my entire life. So that's good. I really just helping our community. Um, I guess a little bit around my education and around my career path. I'm gonna have a master's in healthcare administration, I'm gonna have a bachelor's in science. Um, like I said, I got my associates from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College over 25 years in healthcare, and I guess some fun stuff. I love to fish and enjoy boating, you know, with my wife and my kids.
SPEAKER_03Yay. All right.
SPEAKER_04And by the way, I was reading online. You got your master's from Southern New Hampshire? I did. That's an online degree, right? It is, yes, sir. You can sit in front of a computer and get a degree. They'd have to take me to a chair.
SPEAKER_08So let me ask y'all to just speak up just a little bit because it's kind of hard to hear in the back.
SPEAKER_04All right, so also um, so you're not just over this, right? You're over the other eight facilities along the coast as well? Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_09So the hospital here and our clinics along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Pretty much it, everything in the whole Mississippi Gulf Coast region falls under my responsibility.
SPEAKER_04All right, and Ashner's cranking, right? So I'm reading city business a couple weeks ago, and y'all are still the largest employer in the Greater New Orleans area, um, followed by that other system, which we won't talk about, and then the Tulane University. Um, y'all had 29,767 employees at the end of 25. Right now you have another 1,010, so you're at 30,777. Where how much of that growth was over here?
SPEAKER_09Um so our employees alone here was around 100 employees' growth here along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And then just from the financial impact, our growth just from 24 to 25 was 100 1.4 million dollars.
SPEAKER_04Okay. All right, so obviously we're growing here as well. We added another cardiologist, which is important. I saw our breakfast, it was good, it was good, yeah. But and we also at least one more surgeon, right? Absolutely. So, what else is going on in Hancock Medical Space?
SPEAKER_09So, what we've added here, as you said, we said another cardiologist, Dr. Larry Dervis. We've also added another uh GYN provider, a nurse practitioner, Megan Dye. And that was our women's center. I think that's something y'all talked about in the past here, and that has just grown pretty much year over year. I mean, we're busting at the seams there, so we're actually going to rotate Dr. Cox and Megan Dye supports our Belfort community location, Community Road, and then Megan here is five days a week. So we've grown there as well. We've also added Sierra Reed, which is an ortho NP, and she covers here, and also we'll be covering Long Beach. She supports Dr. Palmer, orthopedic surgeon. But we're looking right now at adding some anesthesiologist. And I know I left some out, but I have a slide here later for all we have a we have a lot of growth going on.
SPEAKER_04There's nothing wrong with cheat sheets. I have some here from you. So so look, I mean, obviously the key to Oshner is its system, right? We're part of that now, right? So this one of the scariest things in the world to a lay person that's not in medicine is the medical system. So, how does this work? How does this how does this serve the people at Hancock County? And you walk into this place, you have access to the whole thing, but and 30,000 employees, but how's it work?
SPEAKER_09So, really what makes it easy is our transfer center. So we have a transfer center, so if you walk into our emergency room today and it's something that needs a higher level of care, we work with our transfer center and we're gonna trench or transfer to whatever higher level of care you need. But I mean, always just coming to your closest facility, making sure you can come here and be stabilized and get the correct care that's needed for whatever's going on with you today is what my recommendation would be. Um, you know, working for Oshner, being with Oshner, as you said, you know, we have the community needs here as far as you know, cardiology, general surgery, GYN, podiatry, orthopedics, ET, you know, the whole gamut with that. But I mean, we're not gonna be doing a transplant here, as I spoke about a little earlier. We're not gonna do neurosurgery here. But within the Oshner system, we can just transfer you to if it's Slidell, if it's the main campus, and all of your records are in our Epic system. So, I mean, you don't have to come get records, you don't have to print that. It's super easy, and everything's on your app. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the app, but I mean, if you have your app, you can look up your results. A lot of times you get the results before the doctor even tells you. That's true.
SPEAKER_03True.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it can be scary. Absolutely, absolutely. Oh, good.
SPEAKER_04So one is there one point of contact though? I mean, when you're you're an patient of Auschner, is there one person you go through for everything, or do you get bounced around? I don't know what's done wrong.
SPEAKER_09No, absolutely have one phone number for everything, which is not. I mean one verse 5200.
SPEAKER_04I know that number. 228525200, right? I know that number.
SPEAKER_09Your primary care doctor is your hub. You know, your primary care doctor can get you to any specialty, and it's not necessarily that you'll have to transfer, you'll have to leave. We have e-consults today. So you can see your primary care doctor, and they can do an e-consult with a physician, you know, throughout our 47 hospitals. Okay. And then you don't have to leave, you get care local. That's one thing that is big to us is keeping the care local. That's a big focus for us, and we want to make sure that we can keep that care local. And our e-consults and just the technology and the AI and everything that's out today is really impressive what we can do.
SPEAKER_04Well, I always love Gone to y'all's main campus. It's how I get all my steps in a day. I mean, it's incredible. And they send you across the street, a lot of so you have a power presentation you want to show us and go through? We do, we do. Let's go through that.
SPEAKER_09Absolutely. All right. So I kind of touched on a lot of this, like I said, a lifelong resident in Mississippi, 25 years in healthcare. You know, I started out in radiology right here at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. I furthered my career in special procedures in cardiac cath lab. Worked for cardiac cath lab like six years. You know, I got my bachelor's in science, as I discussed that with you all, my master's in healthcare administration. My former job before I had my current role today was operational leader for Oshner, and I was responsible for the clinics and just the ambulatory health care. Also, my previous leadership was Lieutenant Health. I talked to you all about that below scene location. Also, my current job today, my responsibilities we talked about is the entire Gulf Coast, you know, all operations, all just everything from clinics to the hospitals. Uh really close to me, I talked about is really just improving our local access, just making sure that we can keep the care local and then our high quilt high quality health care. And I talked about fishing and bowing. I guess I will add a little bit, some of you may know this or not, but I've also raced sprint cars as I've grown up. That's something that I kind of felt I was successful in my medical career when I was able to Google my name and the race car stuff didn't come up.
SPEAKER_00And you went your leadership paint cotton.
SPEAKER_09I did, I did, absolutely. That's back in uh 2018. So this here is a slide that we go over with all of our employees, all of our onboarding. Um this is really our roadmap, this is our path, this is something we follow no matter what. And I tell our employees, you know, look at our purpose. It's our patients, our team, and our communities. I will share with you all around that. If for some reason that I tell them that you don't take anything away from this, just take that the patients first. If I'm not around or your leader's not around, just put the patient first and that'll always be the right decision. You know, that's something that is real passionate for us. Our vision is to inspire healthier lives and stronger communities. Our mission, we serve, he'll lead, educate, and innovate. Our culture is belonging and excellence. You talked about that, but our facility here, culture, is it's a family-oriented facility. You know, I mean, we're open doors. It's just when you walk through here, everyone will say hey to you. I mean, it's just that real old school family facility that we're going to keep no matter what. So we like you to know each other, we like you to know the people that's checking you in, know your positions. And our culture is really supported around our trust, care, and communication, psychological safety, and empowering teams. Psychological safety, you know, that's just where that we want our team to feel safe. That if they see something that they're concerned about or they're wrong, they have that. You know, they feel safe and they're able to say, hey, we need to stop. We're gonna stop the line. Because, you know, they do it every single day. And I mean, we want to make sure that we have zero mistakes here at our facility. And I talk about the patients first, you know, our values, our integrity, always act with integrity, compassion, inclusivity, excellence, and teamwork makes it stronger. And you guys will see that as you come here. This is our facilities that I want to share with you. So every facility here has primary care. Um our the one on your right, yeah, you're left. Sorry, you're left. I'll go that way. So that's our facility here. That's our outpatient entrance there. You'll go there for all your outpatient surgeries and eager surgeries, all of your labs and your x-rays. And then the one next to it is our towers. That's our clinic entrance. So all of our clinics, like I talked about earlier, we have primary care, cardiology, ENT, orthopedics, UIN, pediatrics, urology, hemok, and general surgery. And that's all here at this location. You did talk about the main campus. You know, when you come here, you don't get that many steps. Everything's right here in one location. You know, you see your primary care doc, you walk down, you get your labs, you get your X-rays, and you walk out the door. And we have some nice lines on the floor too to help you find it. So the picture there is our Long Beach location. We have primary care there, we have ortho there, and pediatrics. And that's right next to the Wind Dixie facility. If y'all are familiar with the old Wind Dixie, now is Audi, if y'all are familiar with that. Our diamond head location there, we have primary care, ortho, ET. We also have therapy services there. A lot of people don't know. We have aquatic therapy there, we have a pool. Um, you know, done a lot of work with our diamond head, his Anna and John. This is our other Diamond Head, JX, our podiatry. I always say this when it's across from the duck pond for the people that own the dip. So, and this is our community guard location. There is the bottom right. And then here we have multi-specialties with pediatric specialties, pediatric ortho, pediatric cardiology, also primary care pediatry, and MFM, which is maternal fetal medicine. And if you'll have any questions, really feel free to stop me here, interrupt me. No problem at all. Any questions so far with any of our locations or facilities?
SPEAKER_07How do you what would you do in a trauma situation? My brother got in a motorcycle accident recently, and they flew him to Mobile. Yes. Is there anything closer?
SPEAKER_09Um, so it really just depends on the type of trauma, you know, what he needed, if he needed neuro, if he needed ortho, and that's kind of what determines that. I mean, what I would recommend is always go to your closest facility. Because we have things, you know, there's a slide on that as well, actually. No, no, that's okay, no problem at all. Um, we have, you know, just the tools and the resources here that is not in common, you know. I mean, like if you're having a heart attack, every moment matters. You know, time what matters, muscle of the spine. So, I mean, you know, we can give medications that stabilize that can stop clots or even break up a clot, and that will help, you know, in a stroke situation or any type of situation like that. Now, depending on your type of trauma, like I said, it really just is the next level, higher level of care they need. You know, I mean, it could be Slidell, it could be main campus, and then really whatever is gonna be the fastest.
SPEAKER_08Okay, but you're in an accident, the ambulance comes. Who's deciding where they're gonna take you? Is it the ambulance that's gonna decide where you're going?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, you can. I mean, it is your right, you can tell the ambulance, you know, if you want to go to a different facility or go somewhere. I mean, I'm not gonna recommend that, you know. I think they know what facilities have and where you need to get to to get your best care as fast as possible.
SPEAKER_03Interesting.
SPEAKER_04So I did read about this. Who picked the name leapfrog?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so the the leapfrog actually came from. I don't know who picked the name, so I don't know that answer. But I know the leapfrog safety grades, you know, that's something that we just like to promote and like to push. I think you guys walk into a restaurant today and you'll see the A on the wall or whatever, and it just gives you a level of comfort. You know, when you walk in our facility, we've had an A leapfrog score since 2018. Um, we are the only hospital on the Gulf Coast that has that, except for Keisler Medical Center. You know, it's not a community facility. So I do want to share that with you all. And I was a shot at the board. I'm not, I'm just saying. No, not at all, not at all. Um, what I like to say is I think you know, it's the community health care, and hopefully we push them to improve, and they push us to improve. Very political answer. That's what we want to do. So I will read this to you all just because I want y'all to understand what leapfrog is. So leapfrog hospital safety grades, formerly known as a hospital safety score, are assigned to nearly 3,000 general acute hospitals across the nation twice annually. The safety grade is gold standard measure in patient safety. So that's what I really want y'all to see here is it's not just Mississippi, this is a national, and we've been in a since 2018, and we're very proud of that. It really goes back to what we talked about before. It goes back to the team, having that psychological safety, you know, having that family, having that relationship with everyone that is here, being able to speak up. I kind of touched on this a little bit, but this, like I said, this is the spring of 2026. We've had this since 2018. Only 22 hospitals in Mississippi scored A in spring of 2026. So, I mean, have that comfort when you come here that know you're getting the best, safest care. This is another certification that we have, a stroke, our get with the guidelines goal plus. You know, the biggest thing that this is, is that you're treated quickly. It's that we follow the best practices for your stroke care, it's that you'll receive the appropriate care and the right medications. Also, it's focused today on the national standards and it's measured nationally. And as you can see there, we have that type 2 diabetes, so it's also best practices around that. So, I mean, as you talked about, I know what trauma put your stroke care, you know, this is the best place to come to. Here's my slide for your trauma since you mentioned that. I know we touched on this, but you know, I mean, our transfer center, I can't speak enough about it. You know, I mean, it's like a technology center with just screens everywhere, it's a big newsroom, it's led by Dr. Quo, one of our physicians, and I mean it helps us get the patients where they need to be as soon as possible. So, our joint commission, that's another accreditation that we get every single year, and it's really leading the way into the zero. It's kind of the never events, our target zeros. This actually came from the airline industry and the nuclear power print power plants. You know, we took that from them, as I said, we joint commission did, just to make sure that you know these are never events. We don't want these to happen. And as you guys can see, we are at zero. We haven't had any 2026. This is something we've been doing very well at. And I will go over these because I know you guys probably don't know what these mean. So, CADI, it's a catheter associated urinary tract infection. So that's something that we monitor, we have a bed hole every single every single morning and discuss with our patients to make sure that we prevent this from happening. Classy, that's a central line infection. Our C diff, it's a bacterial in your colon. And then wrong site, wrong side. I imagine you guys are probably familiar with that one. You know, it goes back to just even if it's a scrub tech or if it's a nurse in surgery, just being able to say, hey doc, you know, that's not the side we marked, or hey doc, the results say right, we marked a left. You know, and that just psychological safety that we have here is so huge, and that's what lets us continue with our quality scores and lets us continue to get that leakfrog out. You can see retained object falls, PSI is pressure, and MRSA is another type of staph infection. But zero, and that's something we're very proud of. So we want you guys to share that too with everyone. Those are really slides. I don't want to see what I'm coming in here.
SPEAKER_04I understand, but you don't want to walk in that place where you got the same. I'm going back to the Leaf Frog A.
SPEAKER_07That were chained up because that's when they accidentally leave something inside of you. Oh whoa.
SPEAKER_09Never happened, never happened. It's real world, isn't it? So I want to talk about the provider of recruitment, as you asked earlier. We just hired an additional hospital medicine doc. I know you guys may know Dr. Copeland. He's here local to the community. So we've hired Dr. Kendrick Sparks. He started July 27th. That's a new additional ad that we brought speaking to the growth. Um, Dr. Vargas, that's colorectal. So he does colonoscopies here today, but he will be offering colorectal clinics here within the next two months. Megan Dye touched on her, like I said, support for our women's center. Have any? I don't know if any of y'all have toured our women's center. I know we did a ribbon cut in there. A little while back. But I mean, our women's center is only women only. You know, you walk in there, you can see your GYN provider, you can have your bone density, you can have your mammogram, you can have your ultrasound, all in a women's center. You know, I mean, it's excellent. Um, Dr. Dalmao will be doing colonoscopy. She's a female that works with Oxner as well, that will be coming over here to provide the services for us. So having a female colonoscopy person is excellent as well. So that's a big focus of ours, if you could say something that we've grown. I think we touched on Reed Cooley as our ortho. Um, Dr. Cassano, we're actually going to be adding his location here right across the street in the old um podiatry building. It's a 202. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that right across the street from the hospital. And then we're currently recruiting primary care, an APP of primary care, which is a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, and anesthesia and urology today. And then I do want to mention Dr. Tran. You know, just here today alone, we had 10 surgeries going on today. We have 14 pain cases today with Dr. Tran here, and Sadie Slocum is a provider over there as well. So all your pain management, they're a very good partner of ours. Just some accolades here. You know, this kind of speaks to just the continued growth with around employee and team members. You know, as you can see in 2026, it was top workplaces for nurses. Um, as you all know, nurses today are definitely hard to recruit. And I mean being able to keep nurses here today also helps with the quality. You know, I mean if you're turning all over and then you know it's not you still learn, they don't get that relationship with the physician. So I mean having this award is excellent. So there's a shortage of nurses already.
SPEAKER_04There is, yes. So this so we talked about this about our Reddit. Y'all are going into a partnership with Xavier. We are to open up another medical school in the world. Yes, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_09So that actually should go off in 2027. Okay, good. So speaking on our partnerships, we've actually done a partnership here with BRCC, and you have our DMA students that go to be an LPN, and it's actually night and weekend courses so they can continue to work and also become an LPN and become a nurse. And then we will actually pay for that program.
SPEAKER_04So that in the medical school, y'all have the facilities, everything ready to get? We do. And is it going to be a specialty or focus for the students?
SPEAKER_09It's primary care, and um also they have some other specialties as well. I'm not sure of every single specialty they have, but yes, the students will match. Okay. So just some other accolades around, like I said, best places to work, as you can see, 2021 through 2026 in USA Today. Fortune 100, best place to work. And then really it's just based on our purpose and values, innovation, leadership, work life flexibility, and also professional development. And I mean, this is just having that communication, that personal touch. Now, this is our patient experience, so I want to share this with you all and also have a little ask. You know, when you get your surveys and you think that you just don't want to fill out the survey, this is something that is serious to us. This is something that we measure, we look at, we have meetings with our teams, and we also have plans to improve, as you can see. We're meeting four of the metrics here, which is really good. You know, we're very close to meeting all of them, and you can see 62% to 64%, 65% to 69%, but I also wanted to share what these mean with each of you all as well. So you may hear like an HCAP survey. That's basically your medical floor. That's going to be your you know med surge unit. Our medical practice is basically on our physicians, our ED at the emergency department, outpatient and telemedicine. Telemedicine is all your virtual care that you receive, and then OAS that's really your surgery. And then, like you see, we continue to do amazingness. I think we're leading our region in our experience. So, I mean, this really is the feedback that you guys give us in the surveys. So I know you touched on the MRI as being a radiology background. I had to throw the MRI picture in there. Um, you know, the biggest thing I do want to touch on the MRI here though, the actual bore, you know, the circle of it is bigger today. So, I mean, we're able to, you know, treat patients that we couldn't treat in the past, and also the patients that have claustrophobia. I mean, this there is so much room in this magnet. And it's also not as long as it used to be, so it's shorter. And a lot of the scans you can go in feet first, so your head doesn't even your head can stay out. So we've been able to treat people today that we could not treat in the past. Um, the short the scan times have been cut in half. So, like brains used to take around 15 minutes. We can do a brain today in seven minutes.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_04Well, the holes being bigger is the most important thing. Those old ones are pretty tight.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I don't have the uh weightlifting, you know, experiences yourself, but even when I would go in there, you know, my shoulders would touch the old one. Oh god. We're so excited about that. Um, you know, I touched on this, the $1.4 million of improvement from 2025 to 2024. You know, our Mississippi Gulf Coast, we've exceeded budget over $2.6 million in 2025. So I mean, just the financial stability here in this facility. We've had our highest number of inpatient discharges in January and April of 2024. We've continued that through 2025 and 2026. So we're sitting right around that 20-patient mark, and that's you know what we're focusing on today, is what we have, and we'll continue to grow that as well. As you can see, we've had growth, 12% growth in our lab and our imaging services, also our surgical procedures as well, 3% growth, and then 8% growth around our clinics, as you touched on you know, across the system. And I mean, we couldn't do that today without our team. You know, I mean I can't share enough about our team today. I mean, they're the people that has the passion that makes this place work every single day. And I think that's it. Not gonna really bore y'all with any more slides. Um this is our just capital improvements that we've done. As you can see, this is literally just in 2025 into 2026. So we updated our therapy and wellness. I think you all might be familiar with our therapy, it used to be in the back of the hospital. We've moved it to the hot the front of the hospital. Now we've outgrown that area. So we're looking right here to our 100 building right next to us about moving therapy and wellness just out of the hospital because we just continue to grow. We've outgrowing our space, which is great. We brought in a new EVS and support services, got some new drills for operating room, you know, orthopedic surgeon. You gotta have them in the latest greatest. Yeah, tools, yeah. We've also got some structures for our emergency room, our PFT. That's something that we only used to offer one day a week. Now we offer that five days a week. As you can see, a $48,000 investment on our PFT machine. Also, some washing instruments in our surgery is $165,000. A brand new stress test and treadmill. Um, we actually got a brand new one in 2018 as well. So this is an additional here. And I do want to highlight, you know, working with Annalise and John, you know, we've put our dog park out there, which has been amazing. You know, it's not just what about happens in these walls, it's about wellness for each of y'all, honestly. We don't want to see you in here. We'd rather see you, you know, stay away from here, seeing our primary care office, and then looking forward to our exercise of putting that up with the case.
SPEAKER_11Not to interrupt you, but um, we needed their help in Navyhead. They had some property attached to their clinic that we needed to use, and it was it was just a wonderful process. I mean, it took a while just with county red tape and a few attorneys involved, so you all know. But it just the whole attitude the entire time was how what do you need how can we help? And it was just a lovely experience, and we're very grateful for your partnership. Thank you.
SPEAKER_09Welcome.
SPEAKER_04No, that's it. So let's open up to any other questions. What other questions we've got for Timmy this morning?
SPEAKER_05Well, since we were talking about the dog park and what's going on in Donnet, so what are you doing with that property? You're gonna make exercise equipment, you're gonna it's a walking track, or what is that?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so it's gonna be parking for the walking track, and also we're gonna have exercise equipment there. That's correct.
SPEAKER_10Go go ahead. I don't know. Let's just say it's tomorrow, but yes, uh uh the equipment's here, we have it on site. Uh so public works as soon as uh we can stop this rain and get uh everything else settled in. We will uh be putting that equipment in and get an entire facility. Uh we actually uh luckily uh the Hancock High School uh replaced the turf on their football field and they donated the turf to us. So we will turf that entire area and then put that uh equipment in place. So it'll be great to have once we get in place. It'll be outdoor exercises.
SPEAKER_11Wow, that's free for the community to use and then completely walking trails gonna about it so you can do that and then live on that, and it's been nice and then walk it off.
SPEAKER_02Like a fitness track, fitness trail listations. We need that here.
SPEAKER_09A walking track has some.
SPEAKER_02Like I've done the drill down on the um public health issues in Hancock County, and it could be a little more aggressive.
SPEAKER_08So maybe that walking track that's in front of the hospital is not the hospital's walking track, is that correct?
SPEAKER_09Correct, that's actually the county. We need to do a people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, go on with it. Or maybe I'll get you displayed, right?
SPEAKER_04What else y'all?
SPEAKER_11I'm just gonna give you one more shot of that. So the women's health center, I don't know if any of you are looking for care and seriously the ones the the the OEGYN that they have here is really wonderful. Um, and it was Timmy recommended her. I'm like, I haven't done him forever, and he's like, Well, we would uh go new doctor and tryder, and I needed a mammogram. Of course, I was overdue. We tend to wait for those things, and she's like, Well, do you want to go right now? And they got me right in while I was there. And then we're I mean, like immediately, just walk walk over there and then around the corner, and then oh, while you're here, let's just go ahead and do that ultrasound. Okay, walk around the corner to here, and he needs blood work, go down the hall. I mean, it was just like all all at once, um, and then knocked it out. Knocked it out, and that's and it's right here on the drink. Okay, no, it's a little street. It's in the middle of the street.
SPEAKER_09I mean the street from us in that building.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, and so when you make it that easy, you know, you can't avoid it. You can't but it but it you know, it's just it was just so convenient and everybody was so helpful, and I didn't have to come back. So that was that was nice. So and thank you. And you get your labs when you're out or on, yeah.
SPEAKER_09So we actually did even expand our access as I said it's fashioned in the mind. Um we have walk-in mammograms, so you can walk into them and get it done.
SPEAKER_11They're so fun. Yeah, but you feel good when you're done.
SPEAKER_06What's the relationship or maybe business arrangement between Hancock County Board of Supervisors and this campus? Uh is there any at all?
SPEAKER_09We have a 45-year lease. Yeah, no, I mean this is Oshner own, you know, I mean, but the actual property is a 45-year lease. Yeah. I'll be gone 45 years.
SPEAKER_02Spend more time at the wellness center.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And nobody could. Yeah. He knows I'm a big Oshner fan. It is it helps so much you guys to have them here in drawing uh new business employees and things. That was interesting, that definitely. So more and more as we're talking to Stennis or the Navy, uh, which is huge here in Hancock too, they they all are so uh delighted to know that we have this system here. And there's so many times when I'm just working in my shop, I've told Tim this and they'll say they're thinking of moving, but they're all a lot of them, the first thing is, what kind of healthcare system do you have here? You know, and they're all amazed. I mean, you know, I'm like, oh, we're quite an honor, you know, one of the biggest healthcare centers in the southeast, you know, and and they're number one. You know, I'm so glad you keep winning these awards because I always say that. Anyway, so I just it it's it's such a big part of our community, and y'all are always there to help support us in any way. And just on a personal basis, every time I walk into this center, I love the greeter, the reception people, they're so kind. You know, sometimes I might be nervous about something, but I don't know, I might have it screwed up, I might be a day earlier, a day later, they just fix it, you know. Anyway, so those people right on the front lines are terrific.
SPEAKER_04They'll keep it up. 10 by was that 10 by 5 rule already?
SPEAKER_09That's right. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, it's a 10-5 rule. Okay. So if you're within 10 feet of someone, we have to acknowledge them. You know, they smile, eye contact, and then within five, you need to say hello.
SPEAKER_03That's terrific.
SPEAKER_09Well, I mean, it just lowers the anxiety, you know. I mean, most as y'all talked about the memos, you know, we laugh about it, but most people don't come here for fun.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, and you have a great emergency room department as well. I mean, I've I've been, and I mean, I was in and out within like an hour. I mean, I was you know, hyperventily, but um, they were able to get me squared away and just out the door. It was great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Same thing.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_08I just want to say I agree with Janice uh what Oksha has done has given us a brand that is respected really internationally, and that has given our healthcare system tremendous credibility in our community. Thank you. But your secret weapon is Melanie that's in part to the community because she's like Visa, she's everywhere.
SPEAKER_09If you wouldn't if she wouldn't let me say this yesterday, she told me not to, but I thought her I said then I missed you and we started in Education. I said there's no one who started better than Melanie.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, they were. I remember that.
SPEAKER_04Oh, God bless you. My brother was one of them, and we'd have these disagreements. I'm going, seriously? I mean, it's not we just don't have it there, right? So anyway, change change is hard. Change it's hard. This is Hankai Category. We account outlawed. Uh whatever. Anything else?
SPEAKER_12You mentioned there's a pathway for someone who wanted to be uh a nurse starting with medical assistance. Can you speak more tonight?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so you can join our organization today as an MA. You need no education, and then we will get you to get your certification as you get your MA certification. Then we have two pathways actually. One of them is in Slide L with Delgado, and um I'm gonna mess the name up. I'm not sure I don't want to mess the name up, but anyways, that's a college there, but also a PRCC. And then as an MA certification, if you have your MA certification, then you can go to the LPN program that PRCC offers today.
SPEAKER_12And what's the how do you make the jump to uh an uh an RN or an ADN?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so once you get your LPN, then there's actually bridge programs as well, and then you can go from the LPN to RN. And you don't fund that for the we do not fund the bridge program, but we do fund some of the MA to LPN programs.
SPEAKER_12And do you I guess it would be working full-time as an LPN to try to become a nurse? Do you support them with flexible? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, one thing about being a nurse, you can work 24-7 too.
SPEAKER_04Anything else? Well, I just want to say this. Um, I didn't the the interviews were going on before I got involved in this. What I added was bringing in the people. I you know it's strange. We'd sit in Tish's office in the chamber and I'd interview somebody and they'd film it, and it was really it was so flat. And it didn't give y'all the public access to this. Um these are what hopefully this does. I mean, it's very informative, and y'all had great questions. For those who've moved into Hancock County, thank you. I mean, Hancock County's doing great. For those of us who are from here and lifelong residents, it has never been better. Never been better. And it's because of places like Austin, it's because of the new people who come in with new ideas. Um, it's just it's just a really exciting time. And it's not only just for Hancock County, but anybody check out Mississippi's educational system lately, where we rank? Is that bad for the most important thing? So there's never been a better time to be in Hancock County, Mississippi. So thank you all for coming out this morning. We appreciate you, and we'll see you again soon.
SPEAKER_03Yay!
SPEAKER_04Thank you.