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Currents To Medical Center Employees: At the Oct. 5 communications meeting we received reports  for the first two months (July and August) of this fiscal year toward achieving our financial target and patient satisfaction goals. These goals are key components of our more comprehensive tactical plan.  Highlights of the reports are indicated below. The results are encouraging but should be viewed with caution at this early date. The Medical Center’s  pilot incentive plan calls for eligible employees to receive a 1 percent lump sum increase after the “close out” of the fiscal year if the financial and patient satisfaction goals are achieved.  Managers of inpatient units are asked to take full advantage of the NRC patient satisfaction “e TookKit” and to widely share this information with staff.  The NRC e ToolKit provides very specific “drill down” information on the NRC patient satisfaction questions and results. The e ToolKit offers recommendations on how to tackle shortcomings revealed through the survey. All employees are encouraged to take initiative in identifying cost savings opportunities. Our plan is to widely disseminate best practices to focus on cost control as we move forward. Financial and Patient Satisfaction Goals                                                           Overall Goal                   YTD (July – August)                                                                                                   Overall Performance --Financial Margin                             3.5%                                 3.7%  --NRC Patient Satisfaction Score    Quality of Care/Services                  93.7                                   94.9  --Would Recommend to Others           76.1                                  75.6 On another matter, I wish to thank everyone involved for the overwhelming success of the recent American Heart Association’s Lowcountry Heart Walk campaign. MUSC’s goal was to raise $50,000. At the official close of the campaign we had raised nearly $67,000 and we hope to get the final tally soon. Thank you very much. Sincerely,  W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center   Parking Management to increase spaces To answer questions about the status of parking at MUSC, Lisa Montgomery, interim vice president for finance and administration and administrator of finance and support services, gave a rundown of the parking facilities about to come online. MUSC purchased the Charleston County parking garage in September, which will add 1,600 parking spaces, not all of which will be available to MUSC, however. Montgomery said that both Roper Hospital and the county have three-year contracts to park in the garage.  “When those contracts are up, we will be negotiating them at market rates. We hope that now that we have taken over management we will find that there is some unused capacity.  I f so  we will be able to squeak out some more spaces that we can sell to our employees,” she said. At Harborview Tower, MUSC will be picking up about 40 more spaces in the surface lot. At Hagood Avenue and Line Street are 180 new spaces that “We will try to get online by February.” At the old high school, the plan, Montgomery said, is to make that patient parking and to make Rutledge Tower employee parking. “By making them single-use garages, rather than mixed use, we can offer about 250 more assignments to employees than we could otherwise.” “The Courtenay garage B that's what we are calling the new hospital garage B is being funded by federal dollars, which are not quite here yet. I don't know for sure when that will come online.” She estimated that would be in June of 2008. “Also, there are smaller lots, 22 spaces here, 20 there that we're picking up around the city and bringing online.” Montgomery said that people have asked if there are currently spaces available. There is free parking available, she said, in lots being leased from the city.  These lots are located immediately adjacent to Riley Ballpark and at Stoney Field next to the city gym.  The reserved lots, like PG-2, Montgomery said, are still using the traditional waiting lists. She said that the lists B some of them B date to 1996 in trying to place people. Some other lists are much more current. Assignments to off-campus reserved locations—Harborview Tower garage and Lockwood Drive surface lot—are being made. “We're calling and e-mailing people now. I think for every 10 calls, we're getting one response.” Montgomery said that the waiting lists work on rotation among three lists: employees, faculty and residents. “We'll take two employees, then one resident and one faculty; then two employees, and so on.” Incentive Program Lisa Montgomery also gave an update of the incentive program to reduce costs and increase Medical Center cash on hand. She reported that year to date (through August), the budget is $3,008,778, the year to date actual is $3,618,801, and the incentive goal is $3,460,702. She cautioned, however, against annualizing the favorable figures because not every month is the same and has been known to fluctuate from month to month. Heart Walk Hustle Chris Murray, director of business development and marketing services, said that she had planned to present prizes for money raised, but the number was still rising and in fact had exceeded the $50,000 fund raising goal set for the Medical Center.  “Money is still coming in and approaching $67,000. That is the most any industry has raised in the history of the Lowcountry American Heart Association Heartwalk.”  Human Resources Updates Helena Bastian, director of Medical Center Human Resources, began with a reminder that the Human Resources Office will extend its hours from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the month of October for annual enrollment. Regarding requests for market and internal equity analysis in accordance with Compensation Policy #15, Bastian said that all requests for market and equity analysis should be submitted to Human Resources by the end of October. The “Request for Market Analysis” form can be found online at the HR Web site and should be completed and used for all requests. Requests should only be submitted for classification with recruitment and/or retention issues that can be documented by the department and verified by Human Resources. Results of the request will be returned to the department so that increases may be appropriately budgeted (implementation after July 1). Questions can be directed to Susan Carullo, 792-1684, or to Rosie Smith, 792-7516. Bastian said that as an extra precaution, the Medical Center will complete background checks on contract/agency staff approved for placement at the Medical Center in addition to the vendor’s check. Prospective contract staff must sign a release form which will be provided to the agency and upon receipt of the completed form, managers or the hiring official should forward the form to Paul Moss, Safety and Security for processing. The department will be notified if the individual clears the background check. She asked that anyone utilizing contract or agency services to please contact Joe Logan or Ivan Brooks with the name and address of the vendor. New Employee Survey Kathy Turrisi, program administrator for the Transplant Center, said that a new employee survey will be rolled out next week. The survey was designed by the Retention Committee to focus on new employees and their first year experiences at the Medical Center. Employees will receive an e-mail notice after one month, six-month and after a year of employment requesting their participation. Results will be tabulated and reviewed quarterly. The informa-tion will be sent out to directors and the management team as appropriate. The information will be confidential unless the employee wants to be identified.  “We have found that if an employee is going to leave it most likely will be within the first year. We want to do something that will impact and change the process. This survey is not meant to be punitive. It is meant to see what we can do to retain our employees. We want to be the employer of choice.”