by Regina Hall, Administrative Resident

The Division of Finance and Administration is embarking on a program that will affect the way approximately 800 Medical University employees do business. Continuous Quality Improvement, or CQI, is used to improve processes in order to deliver exceptional customer service.

CQI is the pursuit of perfection through a focus on quality that is uniquely defined by the customer's expectations. Customers include people outside and inside the Medical University and may include anyone from patients to co-workers to regulatory agencies. Once a process has been identified to improve, teams collect and analyze data to understand how departments can work together more efficiently. CQI involves seeking innovative solutions to existing problems and standardizing key process to reduce waste. CQI enables employees to fix what needs to be fixed to best serve the customer.

Robert Gallager, vice president for finance and administration, has selected a CQI Steering Committee that will develop and implement a division-wide process for improving customer services. The Steering Committee has received 96 recommendations from division employees for process improvement projects. These recommendations are currently being evaluated and two processes will be chosen for pilot projects. Multi-disciplinary teams will be used to analyze the processes, identify problems, and develop solutions that will ultimately make work more efficient and/or cost-effective for the division. For more information on the Continuous Quality Improvement in the Division of Finance and Administration, see the CQI web <http://www.musc.edu/fanda/cqi/>.

Steering Committee members

Susan Haskill—Assistant Controller; Thomas Moore—Charleston Memorial Hospital; Melinda Anderson—Parking Management; Denise Beres—Planning; Wayne Brannan—Risk Management; Carl Brown—Fiscal Affairs; Capt. Tom Brown—Public Safety; Mike Bull—Grants and Contracts Accounting; Kim Duncan—Human Resources Management; Mitzi Fetner—Asset Accounting; Melissa Forinash—CCIT; Ellison Kelly—Physical Plant; Terry Komlos—Systems Security; Joe Logan—Procurement; Bruce Mills—Physical Plant; and John Runyon—Business Operations