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Currents To Medical Center Employees: Recently, three town hall meetings covering the same topics were held for  Medical Center employees. Only one of the meetings was well-attended. We plan to hold more town hall meetings on a quarterly basis. We will do a better job of issuing advance notices and conveniently scheduling the meeting times.  We are also considering webcasting these meetings, but we want to make certain this will not inhibit questions from attendees. The purpose of the recent town hall meetings was to generally discuss the Medical Center’s tactical plan, address questions or concerns regarding any topics, and underscore our commitment to communicate. Our two-year tactical plan focuses on five key critical issues, including financial performance, provider of choice (patient satisfaction), employer of choice (employee satisfaction), quality and safety, and information management. A number of committees and work groups are currently brainstorming and focusing upon methods to address these critical issues.  During the town hall meeting, we also discussed the incentive plan. The incentive plan is a component of the tactical plan and, among other things, its purpose is to help us focus Medical Center-wide on our patient satisfaction and financial performance goals.  The updated version of the two-year tactical plan will soon be posted on the Medical Center Intranet.  The incentive plan is currently posted on the Intranet as an attachment to the Medical Center (Hospital Authority) Human Resources Compensation Policy #15.  The evaluations received following the town hall meetings included suggestions for future topics such as updates on the Phase I hospital facility, bed capacity issues, demonstrating how we value employees, security issues, problems with employee smoking, and other points of interest or concern. We will address these and other topics in future town hall meetings, weekly communication meetings, and through the various committees working on the tactical plan critical issues.  Thank you very much.    W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center Heart Walk festival slated for Sept. 29 Business Development and Marketing Services Director Chris Murray thanked those present at the Medical Center communications meeting Tuesday for their “kind spirit and all the volunteer work that you have done thus far. And I’d like to share with you where we are with the Heart Walk.” The 2004 Lowcountry Heart Walk will be held Oct. 2 beginning at Liberty Square and is presented by the MUSC Heart and Vascular Center.  The Little Hearts Walk, presented by the MUSC Children’s Hospital, will follow immediately. Murray introduced Kathleen Brophy, from the local chapter of the American Heart Association, who is director for the Heart Walk. She is an excellent resource for all MUSC team captains and walkers, Murray said.  She referred to the Web site, http://www.heartwalk.kintera.org/lowcountrysc, to demonstrate its ability to keep current with the donations collected, team standings, and names of top fund-raising individuals and organizations. “If you will look at the company rankings, you will see that MUSC is currently in second place behind Charleston County employees,” she pointed out.  MUSC’s overall goal is $50,000. The Web site shows MUSC’s total donations (at the time of the meeting) as $7,335.  MUSC received a block of incentive prizes from local businesses, Murray said, to award on a ongoing basis to employees who are working hard for the American Heart Association. “We will use the Web site to tell us how effective people are being in their fund-raising, and we will start awarding some of these prizes to individuals and teams as well.”  She said that any difficulty updating the Web site should be reported to Brophy. A Heart Walk Hustle fund-raising festival is planned on the horseshoe Sept. 29 to include a dunking booth (doctors and administration types, beware) and an MUSC Idol karaoke contest (everyone in earshot, beware). Also, there will be baked goods, restaurants, and raffles and auctions with offers such as extreme makeovers valued at $600 and $800, a large group charter cruise and family portrait packages. Action O-I Reports Pamela Marek, decision support analyst for the Medical Center, presented a short webex to demonstrate where the Action O-I Reports can be run or viewed this quarter. The Web site is http://actionoi.solucient.com. The typical reports each department runs, she said are the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and the Trend and Compare.  Everyone who attended the report training class has access to the reporting module. Others will need to call or e-mail Marek to obtain access. There will be one more report training class offered this quarter from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 20  in the Computer Training Room, 220 Clinical Science Building. The classes are 30 minutes and begin on the hour and half-hour each day.  Call Pamela Marek with questions, 792-8793. 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.