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Currents To Medical Center employees: Recently the management team held a late afternoon retreat to review our progress and plans for the future. The central theme of the retreat was our commitment to customer service as we look to the future. A representative from the Health Care Advisory Board updated the management team on experiences of hospitals throughout the nation and he pointed out that organizational change tends to erode morale which in turn adversely affects patient satisfaction. Certainly we have opportunities for improvement with customer service. But I am pleased that, in spite of the pressures we have faced in recent years, our patient satisfaction levels have remained high. It is well established that “little things make a big difference.” As we seek to build our customer service training plan, we will focus upon the patient’s perspective . . . and look at all the “little things.” Also, as we move forward we will place emphasis upon managers’ roles in “managing” morale and retention. We cannot over-emphasize the need for recognition for a job well done.  During fiscal year 2000-2001, we improved our financial situation while providing excellent and compassionate care. Thanks to everyone for a job well done throughout the year. The future outlook is encouraging. Thank you very much. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center   Health Connection shows return on investment Sydney Butler, producer of MUSC’s televised Health Connection that airs seven days a week on Channel 5, highlighted the success of the television marketing effort in promoting services and new procedures available at the Medical Center. Speaking at the July 31 communications meeting, Butler said MUSC has been under contract with Channel 5 for the past decade. Health Connection is a two-minute segment that airs in the mornings and evenings, focusing on topics that are designed to generate referrals and consumer interest such as health and safety issues, along with upcoming community education events. During the past year, Channel 5 aired 308 segments, which generated 887 phone calls to the Medical Center.  Each Health Connection segment displays the phone number to encourage people to call, making it possible to track how many calls each show generates. The information can be tracked for return on investment. Butler shared a video of a Health Connection segment pertaining to cardiac scoring, a fast non-invasive screening procedure that can help predict the likelihood of a heart attack before it happens. The television segment was part of a broad marketing effort to promote the innovative, relatively inexpensive procedure known as Ultrafast CT Scanning. Butler urged members of the management team to contact her if they have an idea for a show or series. Butler conducts the interviews, working in combination with a videographer. The setup and interview take less than an hour to complete. “We use the best part of what is said,” she said. For those who have ideas to suggest or would like more information, contact Butler at 792-1187. MUSC works to improve Internet security  At the July 31 communications meeting, Tericia “T” Rossiter, MUHA information security officer, and David Moses, manager of Healthcare Network Services with CCIT, addressed issues of privacy and security pertaining to transmission of health information over the MUSC Intranet and to the public Internet. The Hospital Authority is in the process of developing a new Information Security Program to meet current Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) policy and also the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards that will be enforced by the Office of Civil Rights.  Rossiter and Moses reassured the management team that the entire MUSC Intranet system is contained within a secure firewall, but that security issues remain.  E-mail messages sent or received from outside of the MUSC firewall are not encrypted (e.g., between a user@musc.edu and a user@aol.com, etc.). Without encryption, the message can be intercepted and easily read. E-mail from outside the MUSC network/firewall, such as cable modems, DSL, etc., is not necessarily encrypted either.  CCIT is working to ensure that access to your MUSC e-mail account is secure from outside the firewall (i.e., reading your e-mail or sending e-mail to another @musc.edu address).  Until this is accomplished, it is recommended that you dial-in through MUSC’s PPP server while reading any e-mail containing identifiable patient information.  According to Rossiter, you should keep these security concerns in mind before transmitting health information that can be used to identify a patient. “This is a problem we have noted,” Rossiter said. “It’s something we’re working on.”  HCFA information may be read at: Internet Security Policy: Internet Security Policy FAQ’s:  “While we do enjoy a certain security level internally behind the firewall,” Moses said, “we just want to raise awareness about un-secure e-mail transmission.” Moses also reminded those who have not yet had their leased computers switched out with new, to be sure to save all information stored on the hard drive to another location. “If you have mission critical files on your machine, make sure you back up to the network,” Moses said. Anything stored on the hard drive of a leased machine will be permanently deleted upon its replacement with a new computer. Medical Center Coding Audit ‘Error Free’ The accounting firm Ernst & Young, during a recent audit of Medical Center inpatient coding and billing, showed a “zero percent” error rate, a rare accomplishment, according to Lisa Montgomery, administrator of Finance and Support Services. Ernst & Young, under contract with the Medical Center to ensure MUSC is meeting the terms of the institutional compliance agreement with the federal Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services, recently requested and reviewed 30 coding and billing samples. The first review turned up no errors. “This rarely happens,” said Montgomery. So, just to be sure, Ernst & Young ran another audit of 30 samples. Again, the records were error free. This spared the Medical Center having to go through a full audit, which will save significant time and resources, according to Montgomery. “My hat’s off to our coders, billers and everyone who helped to make this happen,” Montgomery said. Regarding financial matters, Montgomery gave an update on the PTO cash out plan. She said of the 900 eligible employees, 100 took advantage of the plan. Montgomery said she also plans to give more frequent financial updates to the management team. She encouraged all members of the team to bring up matters of concern so they can be addressed at the weekly communications meeting. “We're trying to make the communications meeting more interactive,” she said.