Anesthesia Expansion at University Medical Center
The University of Mississippi Medical Center's agreement for supplemental anesthesia staffing is projected to cost $18.4 million over its five-year term, the state college board learned Thursday.
Dr. Pierce, presenting the item to the IHL Board of Trustees' finance agenda on Aug. 21, told trustees, "The total estimated cost of the agreement over 5-year term is 18.4 million." The presentation identified the vendor as Crew Anesthesia LLC, providing certified registered nurse anesthetist coverage for UMMC. Staff described the arrangement as a renewal of an existing contract, though that characterization, along with the vendor's exact name and details of the board's vote and any trustee recusals, was not fully spelled out in the meeting record.
The agreement represents a significant recurring cost for Mississippi's public medical center, which relies on an outside staffing firm rather than in-house personnel for part of its anesthesia coverage. Multi-year contracts of this size are tracked by public-spending watchdogs as a measure of taxpayer exposure and the state's growing dependence on outside vendors to fill clinical staffing gaps at its public health institutions.