Fulton Medical Center gains chief medical officer

Dr. Robert Jackson
Dr. Robert Jackson

Fulton Medical Center has a new chief medical officer to lead its COVID-19-fighting efforts.

Dr. Robert Jackson, currently president of Premier Specialty Network, is assuming the position effective immediately, FMC operator Noble Health Corporation announced Tuesday.

"We are very excited to bring Dr. Jackson into our mission to revitalize rural care," said Tom Carter, President of Noble Health Corp, according to a press release. "Dr. Jackson's 20-plus year commitment to rural care, the breadth of his experience, and his tremendously positive relationships with rural facilities across 9 states is unprecedented in today's world. We are incredibly fortunate to have him aboard."

Jackson has served as the associate dean of Campus Academic Affairs, and as chairman and associate professor of internal medicine at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is board-certified in the specialty of internal medicine as well as the sub-specialty of rheumatology. He has also completed a four year tour of duty with the National Health Corps in rural Southern Missouri. He is a full-time rheumatologist practicing at nine hospitals throughout Missouri and Iowa.

"I am very pleased to accept this important role with Noble Health," the press release quotes Jackson as saying. "As an innovator and entrepreneur I believe this role provides me an opportunity to elevate the scope and quality of services in rural hospitals across the U.S."

Jackson will retain his position as president at PSN, which describes itself as "a physician-owned, physician-lead network of medical specialists providing outreach services across America." PSN and NHC plan to work together to launch a collaborative subsidiary.

"We have formed a new subsidiary called Noble People Corp. where we will develop physician, mid-level and staff recruiting, along with staffing and HR services for our hospital facilities," said Don Peterson, EVP Corporate Development at Noble. "We expect PSN to be the foundation of Noble People, allowing us to expand and grow specialty and primary care medical services across a wide geography."

COVID-19

According to Noble Health, Jackson's first task will be to take the lead on FMC's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jackson has ambitions of expanding FMC's testing capabilities.

"We are acquiring serum test kits right now along with more supplies to protect our staff and patients," Jackson said. "Our goal is to test our staff and patients early and often. If we can acquire enough test kits we will open testing up to the community in a near-site drive-through system. The test kits we have coming will render a positive or negative result in about 5 minutes with just a simple finger stick."

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a coronavirus test from Illinois-based medical device maker Abbott Labs. The test uses a piece of lab equipment also produced by Abbott that can already be found in thousands of medical facilities across the United States.

Abbott said the test returns positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes. The hospital could not be reached to confirm whether this was the test Jackson referenced.