MUSC Excellence at Medical Center
Surveys, teams,
employees recognized
Service Pillar: Serving the public with
compassion, respect and excellence Service Recovery Team to sunset
The
Service Recovery Team began
meeting in May 2006 as part of the MUSC Excellence efforts. Members of
the group include Lynne Barber, Jennifer Carullo, Stephanie Chomos,
Brian Fletcher, Bonnie Jones, Gwen Kearse, Sharon Mazyck, Lisa
Mullen-Montgomery, Karen Rankine and Carol Younker. The team’s first initiative was to develop a policy and program that would empower every Medical Center employee to rapidly identify and respond to patients and families whose expectations have not been met. The team conducted training during several months across all work shifts, and on the main campus and outlying MUHA sites. The training reached approximately 5,800 employees and taught the LEAD technique (Listen, Empathize, Apologize, Deliver) as alternatives for a resolution. Employees were taught how to use key words at key times in order to turn a customer’s disappointing experience into one that exceeds their expectations.
An electronic Service Recovery Report was activated and employees were asked to report their service recovery attempts. Once submitted, these reports go to the manager of the service area, and to the Patient and Family Liaison office for tracking and trending of service recovery opportunities and LEAD utilization. Service areas were also provided with toolkits so that a token gift is available in the rare occasions when words alone have not worked to remedy a situation. Service Recovery reporting has been steady since initiation of the training, with a high incidence of increasing the customer’s confidence. The team’s goal has been to ensure that when an employee hears a problem from a patient, he/she feels empowered to own it.
MUSC Medical Center leaders thank the Service Recovery Team for its dedication and success with developing the LEAD program and for its training of staff in use of this tool.
People Pillar: Fostering employee pride and loyalty
Employee perspective survey shared with staff
As
Medical Center employees know,
an employee perspective survey was conducted using a national survey
firm, Press Ganey and Associates, to handle the survey. Survey results
were rolled out to the leadership group in late February, and
department leaders were instructed on how to share survey results
during staff meetings. All Medical Center employees should have their
area’s survey shared with them in a staff meeting no later than April
15. As a part of the discussion of the survey during the staff meeting, department leaders and staff are to select up to three areas within their departmental opportunities to focus on improving. Once these are identified, leaders and staff should brainstorm ways to improve and then develop 90-day action plans. The action plans will also be entered by leaders into their MUSC Excellence goal tracking software, called Leadership Evaluation Manager, with an entry deadline of April 30. Action plan(s) updates are to be included in future staff meetings as a standard agenda item.
These action plans serve to identify the staff’s biggest areas of concern and to assist leaders with developing steps to address these issues. The outcomes of the 90-day action plans will be shared with senior leaders, and the accomplishments will be communicated back to the staff.
Similar to the action plans being developed by departments, the Medical Center’s senior leadership is developing action plans for selected areas within the organizational focus of the survey. These plans will be discussed during the April Town Hall meetings and updates will be given at subsequent meetings.
At the end of the survey roll-out meeting, staff were also asked to complete an evaluation form so that senior leaders can understand how well the results were communicated. The evaluations submitted to Stuart Smith, vice president for clinical operations and executive director, MUSC Medical Center, indicate generally favorable ratings, but a number have indicated a lack of confidence in leadership following through on these concerns.
Physician satisfaction survey has great response
The Physician Satisfaction Team completed the inaugural MUSC physician satisfaction survey with a 75 percent response rate from the Medical Center’s attending physician staff. Typical physician surveys by Press Ganey have about a 40 percent response rate.
The Department of Dermatology was the best at 100 percent but Obstetrics/Gynecology was close with 92 percent. Other departments in the top five in terms of response rate were Otolaryngology, Family Medicine, and Radiation Oncology.
The full results of the survey will be available in four- to six-weeks and will be announced at upcoming Leadership Development Institutes.
With the College of Medicine now on the MUSC Excellence pathway, the Physician Satisfaction Team is integrating with the COM and renaming itself the Faculty Satisfaction Team. This team will be focusing on surveying non-physician faculty soon as well as preparing an action plan from the results of the physician survey.
Employees of the month—Applause Award winners recognized
The following employees were chosen by the Medical Center’s Reward and Recognition Team from blind copied Applause awards submitted during the month of February.
Gail Clark, 9 PCU, Applause Award nomination reads in part: “Gail came in on her day off to donate two bags of her clothing to a homeless patient who was leaving the hospital.”
Olin Hardwick, Facilities Management, Applause Award nomination reads: “While traveling on I-26 in rush hour traffic, I had a flat tire on my car. The tire went flat on a bridge and I could not pull off the highway. I had to pull off on an oncoming ramp to the interstate. Olin parked his vehicle and walked back to a most dangerous spot and changed my tire.”
Kim McCants, Physical Therapy, went beyond the call of duty and was nominated for her Applause award for purchasing a knee brace and walker for two unfunded patients.
Billie Guyton, Hospital Patient Accounting, went out of her way to help a coworker who needed a ride to and from work.
MUSC Excellence Employee Appreciation Day a huge success
Focus: AIDET assessment—The Reward and Recognition Team kicked off the first Employee Appreciation Day March 28. All Medical Center employees who had completed AIDET Training and had their AIDET Assessment completed and documented in CATTS by March 27 (early bird deadline) were eligible for a prize. A total of 3,146 Medical Center employees were entered into the drawing. Medical Center leaders, as well as staff in active disciplinary action (written or above within the last six months), were not eligible for the drawing.
The Medical Center’s MUSC Excellence Reward and Recognition team invited Latonia Allen, CATTS administrator for Human Resources, Sheila Griner, with Human Resources Employee Relations, and Jane Scutt, MUSC Excellence coordinator, to the meeting to assist with the March drawing.
The names of eligible employees in the CATTS database were scrambled and the team selected at random 28 numbers from all sections of the roster. Each number corresponded with an employee name. Once the number was given, Allen would announce the name of the corresponding number, while Griner and Scutt would check eligibility status.
Each month, the Medical Center’s Reward and Recognition Team will have a new focus. For the month of April, the team will join with the Employer of Choice Team to host a Welcome to MUSC reception for new employees who are within the first 90 days of employment. Eligible employees will be notified.
Questions about the MUSC Excellence Reward and Recognition Team may be sent to Katy Kuder, team leader, at kuderk@musc.edu or 792-0858.
Medical Center Town Hall meetings
Town Hall meetings with Medical Center leadership are coming up. The first session will be held April 23 and the final session on May 2. These sessions are designed to provide senior leaders a chance to communicate to employees and also an opportunity for staff to learn about and celebrate the Medical Center.
All Medical Center staff are encouraged to attend. The Town Hall schedule was made available well in advance to allow for staff to be able to attend. Talk with your manager to ensure you will be able to attend.
Friday, April 13, 2007
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
Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.