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Currents To Medical Center Employees: At the Feb. 28 communications meeting Rosemary Ellis, director of Quality, and Chris Rees, process improvement manager, announced plans for a “clean sweep” project for the Medical Center. The purpose is to get rid of clutter within the Medical Center. Everyone’s help in this clean up project throughout March is needed. Please refer to the instructions and schedule listed in this newsletter for more details.   Dave Northrup, director of Clinical Systems, and Mark Daniels, APOC program manager, gave a nice “clinical system initiative” update on the progress underway to substantially improve our clinical information systems over the next few years. This effort will eventually touch most employees within the Medical Center and will significantly improve our operations and enhance quality of care.   At our communications meeting, highlights of letters from appreciation from patients and family members were shared. We receive many such letters as well as positive comments contained in Applause cards. We will do a better job of routinely sharing examples of how so many of you “make a difference” every day.    Please remember that our next one hour Town Hall meetings will be March 14 at 11:30 a.m. and March 15 at 7:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. in 2 West Amphitheater. Topics will include updates on our employee satisfaction survey action plans, our hardwiring excellence plan and questions and answers.    Thank you. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center Surplus, storage pickup organized Quality director Rosemary Ellis introduced Process Improvement Manager Chris Rees who has been working on a method to reduce clutter of surplus items and equipment found in the hallways around the medical center. The activity is part of the Clean Sweep Project initiated for the upcoming JCAHO survey visit. Rees provided a revised surplus/storage pickup schedule that will run throughout March and beginning March 6. Reminder pages will also be submitted. A link regarding surplus pickup was created on MUHA’s Intranet Web site.   Support Services director John Franklin and other managers are re-evaluating the current policy regarding scheduled surplus/storage pickup within the Medical Center. Any questions can be directed to Chris Fennell, warehouse operations coordinator at FennellM@musc.edu or 876-7001. Referral Call Center Business Development and Marketing Services’ Hope Colyer introduced Steve Paterniti and Sandra DeAntonio who provided an overview of the Referral Call Center. Referring themselves as MUSC’s “front door,” Paterniti reminded managers of the Referral Call Center’s longstanding mission to provide patient referrals and ensure access for individuals to MUSC health care services while serving as an important health information resource in the community. The group maintains physician profiles essentially found on the Web site MUSChealth.com “Find a Doctor.” Information includes attending physicians, specialities, clinical interests and service locations.   Call Center staff are composed of two qualified health resource nurses and10 customer service representatives, who field a call volume average of between 700-900 calls per day. Consumer services offered are provided primarily through MUSC Health Connection and includes managing Med-U-Nurse service and online health information inquiries and the Executive Health Program, patient referrals, scheduling and general information. They also register for MUHA community outreach activities and screenings in various health specialties. They are also able to track various promotional activities including the Bone & Joint Center, Heart & Vascular Center’s “Go Red” Women’s Heart Care campaign, Hollings Cancer Center’s Comprehensive Breast Health campaign, MUSC Specialty Care, etc. Most importantly, the staff provides an array of customer service activities from “fronting the call” and confirming appointments to providing access and referral services to our MUSC providers.   Staff also provide physician services through MEDULINE, which is attributed to 40 percent of their total call volume. MEDULINE is the physician-to-physician referral line handling about 65,000 calls in 2005. MEDULINE assists referring physicians with accessing MUSC physicians and services and vise versa. This service is provided 24/7 to ensure patient communication and continuity of care.      Finally, the MUSC Referral Call Center supports MUSC employees and staff in accessing the high quality of health care provided by physicians and clinical staff. This includes providing referral to our primary care physicians and specialists, health information through Med-U-Nurse services, registration for community talks and screenings, plus scheduling assistance for employee blood donations, etc. HSC Pager/Phone  Coverage Update House Options Pool Clinical Staffing Office and Hospital Service Coordinator (HSC) manager Betty Quesenbery gave an update on the HSC pool’s pager/phone coverage changes. After much anticipation, the office announced the expansion of evening HSC support from two to three people within the medical center. To help ensure good communications between them and staff, each HSC has been assigned a specific pager and wireless phone corresponding to three areas of responsibility: Adult, Acute Clinical Care (ACC) and Pediatrics.   The Adult HSC is assigned to 10W, 10E, 9PCU, 8W, 8E, 7W, 7E, TJRU, 6W, 6E and 2CCV. ACC is responsible for CCU, NSICU, MICU, STICU, CTICU, MUHA ED, CMH ED, TCU, OR, PACU, Heart & Vascular, Dialysis and Sleep Lab. The Peds HSC covers 5E, 5NWY, 5W, 5L&D, 8D, NNICU, PICU, 7C, 7B, 7A, PCICU, Peds ED and 6SDO.      With the new system and expanded HSC staff (there are currently 8 HSCs), Quesenbery is comfortable that the changes will provide improvements to communications and service. A copy of the HSC pagers, cell phones and coverage areas can be found in the MUHA intranet. CSI/APOC Program Update Clinical Systems director Dave Northrup and Advanced Point of Care (APOC) program manager Mark Daniels reviewed the progress of the APOC Clinical Systems project.   Daniels noted that progress with establishing a project space area in CMH is continuing. They are also focused on filling staff positions for technical specialists, analysts and system trainers. The communications plan is being finalized to include a Web site presence and coordination of upcoming Catalyst articles detailing the project.      The project management team is currently evaluating options for the timing of an upgrade to McKesson’s new system architecture (called Enterprise Release 10 or ER10). The team is conferring with McKesson to assess when is the best time for MUSC to switch to the new architecture. This change will affect MUSC’s APOC program blueprint or time line.      Daniels also gave a status of ongoing clinical projects currently on schedule: Pharmacy Replacement; Materials Management; Perioperative; and projects schedule to start soon: ED Tracking Board, Clinical Documentation, Medication Administration, Emergency Care Documentation and Order Management. Testimonies/Letters of Appreciation Beginning 2006, Ambulatory Care services administrator Dave Neff and communications meeting coordinators asked managers to share testimonies or letters of appreciation from patients and family members about their experiences at MUSC.      Children’s Hospital administrator John Sanders recounted a story to told him in the North Tower elevator by a nurse, whose son was a patient in one of the ICUs of the adult hospital. She told Sanders what great care he had received during his stay. She mentioned that in all her years as a nurse, she had not seen a more compassionate, caring staff and that she was truly grateful.      Clinical Services administrator Marilyn Schaffner also shared an e-mail from a colleague whose friend’s 18-year-old son was recently hospitalized and treated for bilateral pneumonia at MUSC Children’s Hospital. The friend, who also happens to be a working R.N. with 25 years experience, could not be more pleased with his care and quality treatment. “The care could not have been any better, the nursing staff was attentive, concerned and on top of it,” she wrote. “In my 25 years working in-and-out of hospitals, I have experienced nothing better.” Friday, March 3, 2006 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 catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island papers at 849-1778, ext. 201.