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At the midpoint, Step Up makes positive impact by Cindy Abole Public Relations Images of mountains, ladders and characters featuring a thumb’s up sign are just a sampling of some of the creative tracking activities performed by Medical University Hospital Authority (MUHA) staff and departments stepping up this November.  Step Up is a 30-day campaign throughout November designed to inspire Medical Center employees to step up their efforts towards good customer service and employee satisfaction that recognizes actions and attitudes.  Following the first week of the campaign, a total of 120,787 Step Up actions were reported throughout campus. Now at its midpoint or third week, employees have sincerely committed to customer service excellence by performing a total of 266,568 Step Up actions so far. The proposed goal established for the November campaign is 399,750.  For most people, Step Up has initiated a conversion of attitude, action and accord among Medical Center employees. People are displaying various acts of courtesy, respect and good-will among themselves and MUSC’s patient population.  “We want to ensure the excellent clinical care given at MUSC is supported by five-star customer service,” said Betts Ellis administrator of institutional relations, MUHA. “Patients and visitor satisfaction levels can hinge upon our customer service behaviors. The Step Up theme serves to underscore that small gestures can make a big difference.” In hospital patient accounting, manager Susan Wood and her team have generated a wellspring of creative ideas and activities that have already achieved much enthusiasm and positive response throughout her department. Located on the 10th floor of Harborview Tower, Wood and the staff of 70 people handle the tough tasks of managing patient billing, financial assistance and education. Typically, her crew interacts with patient-customers, internal staff and external resources. Based on their specific work, more than half of her department conducts  their business via telephone.  “Starting Step Up has really made a difference among all of us,” said Wood. “It gives each of us a chance to step back and consciously try to step up in everything we do during a routine day. Most importantly, it gives us a chance to see beyond our own contributions and look at the big picture and know that we give our customers 110 percent.”  Wood knew her strategy had to focus on external and internal customer service, more specifically communications skills. During the Nov. 1 Step Up kickoff, she gathered the staff to introduce a video presentation on internal customer service. Next she had the staff complete a short self-assessment/personality test to identify their communication styles. Staff received their results categorizing them into four communication types: doer, thinker, feeler and intuitor. Playing on the Step Up theme, each personality was matched visually with a descriptive shoe character, in their “What kind of shoe are you?” plan. A doer is depicted by a work boot; thinker by flip-flops; feeler by sandals and intuitor by a bare foot. Employees were then asked to post their “shoe” character in a visible part of their work area for everyone to see. “The shoe model was a great effort,” said Jessica Binnarr, who works with 17 people in the accounts receivable team. “It helped the staff identify with others not only by what type of communicator they are, but the work they do.” Binnarr and the accounts receivable team adopted a “climb the mountain” effort in their Step Up practice. On a wall is a huge mountain display complete with small footprint cut-outs imprinted with the names of each staff member. In step-like fashion, the footprints are positioned at the mountain’s base in ascending order. Once an individual performs a step up action, their footprints ascend toward’s the mountain summit or team’s final goal. “Everyone wants to be better in what they do and how they work along with others,” Binnar said. “Step Up has helped many people learn this and continues to teach them how to strive a little harder everyday.” Hospital Patient Accounting supervisor Jenny Tavel supervises eight people working in Medicare outpatient group. Following the personality test activity, she noticed that she worked with more feelers than doers in her area.  “We’ve managed to unveil our strengths as a unit just by doing Step Up,” said Tavel. “The program has made great sense in a lot of the things we do. It helps us realize the relationship with between ourselves and other people’s jobs. It gives me and another individual a chance to combine our efforts to enjoy pleasant experience as we interact with one another.” Each week, Tavel submits the information to the administrative assistant who send it to the director prior to the final submission to administration. In the 10th floor area of ambulatory cares, the seven members of the maxillofacial prosthodontics clinic in Rutledge Tower have embraced Step Up as a fun and light-hearted way of maintaining excellence and achievement.  Previous results of the hospital’s patient satisfaction surveys have consistently ranked the maxillofacial prosthodontics clinic in the top quarter among the medical center’s clinical service areas.  “We had to try and provide a more creative approach with staff to enhance what we’re already doing well,” said Tanya Riffe, RDH, clinical coordinator and dental hygienist. “We chose to adopt Step Up as a fun approach that’s positive and reasonable in helping our area achieve its goals.” During a lunch break, Riffe and her staff began discussing Step Up ideas. Together, they agreed to the idea of creating personalized “gingerbread” cut-outs of each other complete with names, digital face photos and a daily tally of Step Up service actions completed for each day. Their theme, “Thumbs up to Step Up,” has been a big hit, according to Riffe. A specialty area, the clinic works exclusively with head and neck cancer patients. “We try to keep a more positive perspective because of our patients,” Riffe said. “Their lives are already filled with devastating trauma. Having a positive and polite attitude is the least we can do for them.”.   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.