Jackson-based University of Mississippi Medical Center has had its application to serve as a state burn center approved, but an April 12 Mississippi Today report claims its physicians are not currently certified under basic burn care standards.
The UMMC burn center director, Peter Arnold, MD, may not meet the required qualifications to lead such a center, the report also claimed. The state requires a burn center director to have completed a burn fellowship or have spent two of the past five years caring for burn patients, according to the report.
Alan Jones, MD, UMMC's associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs, said in the report that Dr. Arnold has had an almost 20-year career with "extensive training and experience in caring for patients with acute burns and complex wounds." The burn center at UMMC, set up in January, also has five other "highly qualified" surgeons, Dr. Jones said.
The news comes as Mississippi's Department of Health said April 11 it had officially designated UMMC as a "Mississippi Burn Center."
UMMC is competing with Jackson-based Mississippi Baptist Medical Center to get such a designation, but Mississippi Baptist has not yet been approved. The two systems are seeking to replace services lost to the state when Merit Health Central in Jackson closed its burn center in October.