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Currents The management team was very pleased to hear President Ray Greenberg's comments at our June 27 communications meeting. His comments are highlighted below. Dr. Greenberg will follow up with a town hall meeting for Medical Center employees on Wednesday, July 5, at 3:30 p.m. in the Institute of Psychiatry Auditorium.  He also has scheduled a town hall meeting for university staff on July 19 at 12 p.m. in Baruch Auditorium. With all of the changes underway, this is a good time to renew our pledge to communicate. Dr. Greenberg has made communication a priority. In recent years, the Medical Center's leadership team has attempted to maintain good communication through our weekly meetings with all managers and the Currents newsletter. We must do better with our face-to-face communication, because printed material alone will not get the job done. As we head into the new year, we will shift from the Authority planning phase to implementation.  We will immediately begin using our new human resources and procurement policies. We will kick off a process for more detailed negotiation of service contracts between the university and Medical Center with a goal of cost effectiveness. We will be ever mindful of the Medical Center's role in fulfilling the MUSC mission. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center President Greenberg commends Medical Center's dedicated efforts President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., talked with the management team about the collective vision for MUSC's future. He commended the Medical Center's dedicated effort to mitigating a $40 million deficit. He is optimistic that the efficiencies and cost savings with the Authority implementation, as well as a cash infusion from the tobacco settlement fund, will continue to boost the Medical Center's financial bottom line. Greenberg discussed the limitations of working in a facility that is approximately 50 years old. He envisions future MUSC facilities in multiple locations to serve a growing market. He foresees incremental expansion over the next 10+ years in combination with different strategic partners. Greenberg addressed several questions/comments from the management team, including the frustrations that come with combining education and patient care. Greenberg noted that the perceived increase in faculty departures actually is not much higher than in previous years. During the past two years, the faculty departure rate was between 6 and 6.5 percent, while this year it is closer to 8 percent. Other questions/comments included nursing staff concerns with a nursing shortage and aging nursing population, how to increase the medical staff's participation in compliance issues, and the feasibility of including other hospitals in MUSC's education mission. MEDUCARE Accreditation Recently, MEDUCARE's air medical transport system was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems. Pam Cipriano, Ph.D., administrator for Clinical Services, recognized Karen Driggers and the rest of the MEDUCARE staff for this significant accomplishment.