MUSC Excellence at the Medical Center
Pastoral Care, EM
residents share in Excellence
Service: Serving the public with
compassion, respect and excellence Pastoral Care recognized by colleagues
The MUSC Pastoral Care staff promotes the integration of spirituality throughout all aspects of the hospital and creates an environment of spiritual and emotional healing for employees, patients, and their families. MUSC chaplains reach out to people regardless of religious faiths. They are involved in emotional and traumatic situations on a daily basis. Each one of the chaplains gives so much of themselves to provide support to meet the needs of MUSC patients and families. They are called upon to serve in times of joy and in crisis, and are available day or night.
Pastoral Care Services provide many services throughout the year and are very involved with community organizations. Daily prayer services are offered in the Adult Hospital Chapel. They provide memorial services for staff and their families. Worship services offered include St. Luke’s Day Service, Anatomical Gift Service, Ash Wednesday Service, and Tender Memories Service for those who have perinatal loss at MUSC. They offered a prayer service for firefighter victims of the Sofa Super Store fire at the flag pole simultaneously with the memorial service at the North Charleston Coliseum. Most recently, they hosted an appreciation breakfast for the Coastal Crisis Chaplains at the Riverview Holiday Inn. MUSC chaplains voiced appreciation and blessings upon the Coastal Crisis chaplains for their ministry to the community as a whole and in the recent tragedy with the death of the nine Charleston firefighters.
The Pastoral Care Department received the highest rating on the medical center's initial Internal Customer Survey and was recognized by the hospital’s Reward and Recognition Team Aug. 15.
People: Fostering employee pride and loyalty
New emergency medicine residents join in Excellence
On July 1, the Division of Emergency Medicine embarked on a new adventure—the Emergency Medicine Residency program. During orientation, the EM residents received the basic MUSC Excellence training from one of the Studer coaches, Julie Kennedy, an emergency department (ED) nurse. The ED is looking forward to seeing the impact of the residents’ training on patient satisfaction scores.
This is the first year of the EM Residency program and having one group of physicians dedicated to the ED will lead to continuity of care, which should lead to greater patient satisfaction. The ED is already receiving complements of how well the residents are interacting with the patients from other physicians in the hospital. With this addition to the ED’s core group of attendings, physician assistants and nurses treating the patients, the satisfaction scores should rise to levels well above the goal.
Employee of the Year—Tracy Burgess, Psychiatry, Star Ladson Day Treatment
The Reward and Recognition team held the Employee of the Year ceremony Aug. 22.
Nominees included the Employee of the Month winners from this past year as well as a few employees that made the final cut through the open nomination process held in late July.
Star Ladson Day
Treatment Program's Tracy Burgess “Acts of Excellence” were posted on the intranet page and employees were asked to vote for the action that best described the MUSC Standard of Excellence. Tracy Burgess received the most votes during the online voting process.
Nominees for Employee of the Year included Mike Norris (Adult ED); Tameka Magwood (Ambulatory Care Registration); Traci Davis (Storm Eye Pediatrics); Mary Hugue (Dietary); Millie Jenkins (Ambulatory Care Transportation); Candace Tollerson (Rutledge Tower Transportation); Nancy Jackson (Physical Therapy); Debbie Webb (Transplant); Derrick Jenkins (MICU), Melissa Sergent (2CCU); Cynthia Plutro (Psychiatry-Star Ladson); Cindy Jackson (Adult ED); Olin Hardwick (Facilities Management); Billie Guyton (Hospital Patient Accounting); Gail Clark (9 PCU); Kim McCants (Physical Therapy); Isabel Detzler (Interpreter Services); Charlie Sander (Biomedical Engineering); Marian Taylor (Transplant); Dan Altman (Support Services); Lori Spencer (Psychiatry); Laurie Funderburk (Children’s Heart Cath Lab); Antionette Bowman (Psychiatry); Michael Irving (Clinical Services Administration); Shanika Phillips (Dietary); Dale Tysk (Antepartum); Katy Moser (Storm Eye); Archie Reid (Safety and Security); Melissa Fethers (Meducare); Lynn Myers-Wimpee (Main OR); Cassandra Whaley (Pharmacy); and Hypatia Foster (6 West).
Congratulations to all of the medical center staff nominated for Employee of the Year.
Remember the 10-5 Rule: September Standard of the Month
The medical center and the College of Medicine/UMA will share the same standard for the month of September. The 10-5 Rule was the standard in February but the medical center realized that this behavior was not quite “hard-wired” with the staff. So the medical center decided to team up with other areas focusing on MUSC Excellence and adopt the 10-5 Rule as a shared standard this month.
At 10, make eye contact and at 5, smile and speak.
September Benefit of the Month: Medical Spending Accounts—MoneyPlu$
Highlights of the program are listed below. For additional information regarding this benefit or any other medical center benefit, contact Mark Stimpson, benefits and records manager (792-9320).
- Money Spending Accounts (MSA) provide the option of paying for eligible medical expenses, incurred by employees, their spouses and children that are not covered by health insurance, on a pre-tax basis. The tax advantages with an MSA are even greater than other tax favored plans, since contributions are made prior to social security, state and federal taxes. There is a $2.50 per month administrative fee for maintaining a MSA.
- An eligible expense is one that is medically necessary and may include: dental and orthodontic fees, eyeglasses and contact lenses, experimental medical treatments, in vitro fertilization, prescription (and many over-the-counter) drugs, diagnostic tests, medical insurance co-pays and deductibles.
- Employees are eligible to enroll in an MSA in October, during annual or open enrollment, assuming the employee would have completed 12 months of continuous service by Jan. 1 following enrollment—the account is then active from this date. MSAs require re-enrollment every October.
- An employee must carefully estimate the amount he or she is likely so spend for eligible medical expenses. The amount the employee selects will be divided by the number of paychecks from which a deduction will be made throughout the year. This amount is deducted from the paycheck on a pre-tax basis and deposited into the Moneyplu$ account. As expenses are incurred, documentation for reimbursement should be submitted. These amounts may be direct deposited into the employee's bank and this can shorten the usual two week turnaround time.
- Be careful not to overestimate expenses since any unused funds will not be carried over or reimbursed - the use it or lose it rules applies.
- The IRS now allows a grace period of two months 15 days following the employees plan year. This means that if he or she overestimated for expenses incurred in the first two and one-half months of the following year against the amount deposited into the account, the previous year can get reimbursed.
Friday, Aug. 31, 2007
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