University of Mississippi Medical Center

The University of Mississippi Medical Center, located in Jackson, is the state's only academic health science center.
UMMC includes seven health science schools: medicine, nursing, dentistry, health-related professions, graduate studies, population health, and pharmacy. (The School of Pharmacy is headquartered on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford.) Enrollment in all programs is more than 3,000 students.
The Medical Center's three-part mission is to improve Mississippians' lives by educating tomorrow's health care professionals, conducting health sciences research, and providing cutting-edge patient care. The Medical Center's primary goal is the elimination of differences in the health status of Mississippians based on race, geography, income, or social status.
Integral to its education and research missions, UMMC provides wide-ranging patient care programs. Three specialized hospitals on the Jackson campus include the only children's hospital in Mississippi, a women and infants' hospital, a critical care hospital, and University Hospital. UMMC offers the only Level 1 trauma center, the only Level 4 neonatal intensive care nursery unit, and the only organ transplant programs in the state, in addition to many other referral services. University Physicians, the School of Medicine's faculty group practice, includes about 500 doctors, many of them among leaders in their field, who care for patients in the hospitals and clinics on campus, around the Jackson metro area, and in outreach clinics around the state. UMMC includes two community hospitals, UMMC Holmes County and UMMC Grenada.
With more than 10,000 full- and part-time employees, UMMC is one of Mississippi's largest employers. The Medical Center's $1.6 billion annual budget - approximately one-tenth from state appropriations - represents 10 percent of the Jackson metro area economy and two percent of the state economy. UMMC continues to grow in all its mission areas.
The mission of the University of Mississippi Medical Center is to improve the health and well-being of patients and the community through excellent training for health care professionals, engagement in innovative research, and the delivery of state-of-the-art health care.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center will be a premier academic health sciences system that is recognized nationally for high-quality clinical care, innovative research, and training committed health care professionals who work together to improve health outcomes and eliminate health care disparities.
Children's of Mississippi provides health care designed just for kids through Batson Children's Hospital plus clinics statewide. From world-renowned studies on heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension to advanced treatment for cancer and a human physiology simulation program used by NASA, researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center are unraveling the diseases that affect Mississippians, creating new, high-tech jobs, and injecting tens of millions of dollars annually into the state's economy. UMMC aims to lead the way to discoveries that will raise the health level of Mississippians and, indeed, all humanity.
Effective teaching of current knowledge is an essential mission of all universities. However, original research enlarges the boundaries of human knowledge, drives innovation, and is a leading university hallmark. UMMC has many notable research achievements since its inception in 1955. In recent years the institution has undergone considerable expansion of research programs and physical facilities. In turn, extramural research funding doubled in less than five years. Much of this expansion can be attributed to increased investment in infrastructure and additional distinguished research faculty recruitment.
ORSP contributes to the university's responsibilities for education, research, and service by assisting UMMC employees seeking external support for their research and other programmatic activities. ORSP is also responsible for the post-award administration of contracts and grants awarded to UMMC.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson is the health sciences campus of the University of Mississippi. The Medical Center opened in 1955, but its beginnings date to 1903 when a two-year medical school was established on Oxford's parent campus. In that era, certificate graduates went out of state to complete their doctor of medicine degrees.
In its history dating to 1903 on the University of Mississippi campus, the Medical Center has been fortunate to have a series of strong institutional leaders. Over many years, they provided visionary leadership and managed the rapid growth of UMMC after it opened in Jackson in 1955. Finally, in 1950, the Mississippi Legislature - by a one-vote margin - enacted a law to create a four-year medical school. On July 1, 1955, the state's new University Medical Center, or UMC as it was commonly called, opened in Jackson, initially as a four-year medical school with medical and graduate students, interns, and residents. As it had in Oxford, the School of Medicine offered both medical and graduate degree programs. The campus included a teaching hospital and a library.
The Medical Center functions as a separately funded, semi-autonomous unit responsible to the chancellor of the University of Mississippi and, through him, to the constitutional Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, which governs all eight state institutions of higher learning in Mississippi. The Medical Center's chief executive officer is the vice chancellor for health affairs.