CurrentsTo Medical Center Employees: We are preparing to gradually roll out our “hardwiring excellence” plan as discussed over the past several months. This is something our management team embraced at our retreat last May. We will be coached by The Studer Group over the next three years to help us roll out our plan. Simply stated, our goal is to create a great place for patients to get their care, physicians to practice medicine and teach, and for employees to work. Our administrative team has recently met with Don Dean, our Studer Group account leader. Mr. Dean was with Quint Studer at Holy Cross and Pensacola-based Baptist Health. He has a wealth of experience, including expertise in patient satisfaction. He and four other coaches will be working with us. Our hardwiring excellence work, to a great degree, will be an updated version of the goals we have been focused upon for the past several years. The major differences will be the level of engagement involved, the new committee structure, and the drill down of best practices. Our administrative team will develop a work plan, with Don Dean’s assistance, to help balance what is now on our plates and to develop a structure to implement the plan. The work plan will focus upon the activities needed to accomplish our goals. This may include taking some things off of our plates to have a clear road map. As many of you know, hardwiring excellence is hinged upon our commitment to nine key principles including: commitment to excellence; measurement of important things; building a culture of service; creating and developing great leaders; focus upon employee satisfaction; building individual accountability; alignment of behaviors with goals and values; communication at all levels; and recognizing and rewarding success. The administrative group will serve as the steering committee for the hardwiring excellence plan. Three core elements will move the hardwiring excellence plan forward including leadership development, leadership evaluation, and service teams. From the administrative team I will appoint one overall champion coordinator and a champion (chairs or co-chairs where appropriate) to facilitate leadership development, leadership evaluation and service teams. Leadership development will include quarterly two day intensive training, with hands on assistance from coaches, for the entire management team. Various teams will be involved in managing our leadership development. These teams will focus on communication, curriculum, logistics and social activities. Leadership evaluation will involve a revamping of our management performance evaluation methods to adopt a more objective system and to raise accountability. Assigned leaders will work to develop a weighted pillar-based objective leader evaluation system. The service teams will involve engagement of a number of staff. The service teams will deal with standards, measurements, patient satisfaction, physician satisfaction, employer of choice, communication, service recovery, reward and recognition, and others issues as needed. We will realign our current goals under various pillars focusing on service, quality, finance and growth. We will define a few goals under each pillar. These pillars will be consistently used in our routine communication to promote understanding of our goals and the interrelatedness of goals. The tactical plan work groups will be retooled with time. We expect the tactical plan work groups will be replaced with the service teams over time. We will gradually introduce “must have” behaviors and tools to help us improve rounding, interviewing and retention, recognition, follow up with discharged patients and other best practices. We will work on this gradually, one step at a time. This will be a long term journey, not an event. Everyone’s support is needed. I will discuss our hardwiring excellence plan and other related matters at our next Medical Center Town Hall meeting. Details about the meeting time and agenda are included in this newsletter. Thank you very much. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center STEMI alert, GetWell Network discussedQuality director Rosemary Ellis provided a PowerPoint presentation and recommendations to managers in the effective communication of information and education of hospital staff relating to National Patient Safety Goals.Ellis reminded managers that best practice research cited that employees prefer receiving critical information from an organization’s CEO or direct supervisor. She also identified and related effective channels of communication and encouraged managers to create their own department communications plan. Ellis reviewed the National Patient Safety goals and reminded the group of their basic responsibility: “provide quality health care in a safe environment.” Compliance with these basic steps is mandatory for the safety of our patients. She concluded the presentation by distributing quality and safety badges to hospital managers. Ellis plans to distribute the presentation within the next few weeks. MUSC Wellness Program MUSC Wellness Program Annie Lovering was introduced as the new coordinator. Supported by MUHA and University, the program was established to promote the health and well-being for employees and staff within MUSC’s community. Lovering’s goal is to build the program in baby steps and establish it among the campus community. She is currently seeking information about existing health/wellness programs on campus to help promote its offerings. Her vision of the Wellness Program is an umbrella organization supporting all programs. Among her first initiatives is to establish an employee wellness Web site which will provide information about employee health promotion activities, list events, present health information topics, and provide links to other community events related to wellness. Activities of interest include physical activity, managing stress levels, and promoting safety awareness at work. Other topics she’d like to explore include refining the campus walking program, work-site massages, skin cancer screening, stretching and ergonomics education, smoking cessation programs and establishing a Wellness Wednesdays program to distribute specific health topics information and conduct blood pressure screenings. In addition, she’d also like to establish campuswide wellness teams, providing a new perspective for creative fun and healthy competition. To kick off the new program’s efforts, Lovering announced a program name and visual image contest. Ideas must be submitted to her by March 15. The contest winner will receive a gift certificate for a free massage. Finally, Lovering left managers with several questions to relate between themselves and staff: (1) What are some existing wellness programs at MUSC that can be posted on the new Wellness Web site? (2) What would you like to see in an employee wellness program? (3) How can we make the program accessible and practical for employees? Employees can submit their comments and contest ideas to loverin@musc.edu. STEMI Alert System CTICU/CCU nurse manager Bob Anthony announced that the Heart and Vascular Center has just installed the STEMI Alert ( ST elevation myocardial infarction) system to aid patients who arrive at MUSC experiencing an acute myocardial infarction. As part of MUSC’s Chest Pain Center Initiative, the alert program was added to help identify and effectively treat heart attack patients entering the emergency room. The STEMI alert provides specialty care 24/7. Once an ER physician identifies that a STEMI patient has arrived or is coming, he/she dials 792-3333 to notify the hospital operator. The STEMI Alert system automatically pages a cardiology fellow on call and the CCU. The cardiology fellow quickly comes to the ER and confirms the diagnosis and notifies the cath team of a pending need for intervention. During off hours, 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. and weekends, the system works slightly different. When the STEMI patient is identified by the ER physician, he/she activates the STEMI system by calling the cardiology fellow. The system also notifies the HSC and CCU of a pending STEMI patient. If the cardiology fellow is not readily available and the ER physician has no doubt regarding the patient’s status, the fellow calls the cath team to prepare for intervention. If the ER physician is unsure of the acute status of the patient, he/she waits for the cardiology fellow to arrive before the cath team is activated. When the patient is identified as a STEMI patient, CCU, in coordination with the HSC, will ensure that accommodations are available for the patient. During off hours, the CCU will present to the Cath Lab to assist the team if the patient is critically unstable. MUHA Human Resources In preparation for JCAHO, MUHA Human Resources’ Helena Bastian reminded managers to review staff files for compliance using the personnel file review guide. Resources like the orientation and competency guideline may be located on the HR Web site under miscellaneous forms. Bastian reminded managers about the primary source verification process, which became effective Jan. 1. All hospital are required to conduct a primary source verification of any required licensures, registrations or certifications at the time of employee hire and also at the time of renewal. HR recently completed a training series regarding the process with department designees. Information, including the monitoring of expiration dates, will be tracked in the CATTS system. Questions about the verification process please contact Susan Carullo, 792-1684. CATTS inquiries may be directed to Heather McKelvey, 792-1136. Finally, HR continues to host its monthly training series. February’s training features Business Manager Training, Feb. 16; First Impression Training, Feb, 22, 23, 24 and 28; How to Complete the PEAR and More, individualized training-to arrange a session, contact Victoria Williams, 792-0838. E-newsletters and GetWell Network Update Web Development Services director Dave Bennett announced the launch of a new patient-visitor E-newsletter campaign. Currently, MUSC receives most of their E-Newsletter subscribers from consumers directly subscribing to E-Newsletters while visiting the hospital’s Web site (http://www.muschealth.com). Marketing publishes these newsletters on a wide range of subjects including diabetes, child health, women’s health and many other subjects. Subscribers to the various topics receive weekly Newsletters related to the topic that they subscribe too. In an effort to expand our subscriber base to these newsletters, subscriber boxes have been placed in various Ambulatory Care settings and other common patient-visitor areas in an effort to garner new subscribers to these newsletters. The goal of this program is to generate about 5,000 additional subscribers to MUSC’s electronic newsletters. He hopes this growth will improve customer relationship management and keep people informed about happenings at MUSC. Bennett also provided an update on the GetWell Network, a project that connects patient bedsides for interactive electronic communications including Internet access at the Children’s Hospital and about 50 percent of the adult hospital. Progress in the Children’s Hospital installation has been completed. The system has been completed and tested, plus staff training continues. The goal is to launch the Children’s GetWell Network on Feb. 27. The goal to launch the adult hospital is scheduled sometime during late March. Bennett recognized many individuals and staff involved with the testing and deployment of this system. Additional information about the GetWell Network is now available online at http://mcintranet.musc.edu/getwellnetwork. Medical Center Town Hall Meeting The next Town Hall meetings (repeat sessions) are scheduled for Tuesday, March 14 at 11:30 a.m. and Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. All meetings will be in the 2 West Amphitheater. Agenda items will include a summary of department-based and Medical Centerwide employee satisfaction survey action plans, an update on our Medical Center goals and Hardwiring Excellence plan and general questions. Announcements Oncology and Medical Surgery Services clinical director Colleen Corish welcomed Jennifer Hunter as new 6W nurse manager. Hunter comes to her role working five years in the hospital service coordinators’ office. She also applauded the efforts of Margaret Burke who stepped in as interim manager to assist throughout this vacancy. Corish also announced the addition of Karen Austin as new business manager for Oncology and Medical Surgery Services. Austin comes to her role from Springfield, Ill. where she worked in overseeing a statewide immunization program. In addition, she recognized former business manager Casey Liddy, Business Development and Marketing Services, and Susan Robinson, Surgery, Women and Infant Services, for assisting with managing personnel efforts and other team support. In a joint effort, Corish announced that effective Feb. 1, the 2Center Medical-Surgical Unit will move to its new location below the Heart & Vascular Center. Patient/Family education and Interpretation Services’ Karen Rankine recognized Jason Roberson who is the new cultural competency coordinator. Roberson has expanded duties and will also continue as a part-time Spanish interpreter. Friday, Feb. 17, 2006 |
|