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Currents At the recent MUSC Board of Trustees meeting, I gave an update on preparation for the MUSC Hospital Authority’s implementation.  The authority will enable much needed flexibility for the management and operation of the Medical Center, and is similar to initiatives taken by other state academic medical centers throughout the nation.  We expect to implement the authority in July 2000, subject to an approving resolution by our board of trustees. As we communicated in the last issue of Currents, the authority’s employee grievance policy recently was approved.  Currently, we are working on a draft of the procurement policy, which will require approval from our board of trustees and the State Budget and Control Board. The Me Issues Committee has devoted much effort to developing recommendations for the new paid-time-off policy, which we hope to finalize soon.  We are identifying what property needs to be earmarked as authority property to enable compliance with bond covenants.  We are discussing shared services to determine support functions that will be performed by the authority and services the authority will purchase from the university.  We are considering legal issues required for implementation—such as bylaws—and we are in the process of taking legislative action for technical amendments to improve the Authority Act. Our board also passed a resolution to approve an $11 million master equipment purchase agreement.  This will enable the purchase of much needed equipment, including an MRI, a linear accelerator, an ultrasound system and other equipment. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center Visitor Pass Pilot Project Paul Moss, manager of Medical Center Safety, Security and Volunteer Services, presented an overview of the three-month visitor pass pilot project, which begins Feb. 14. Laurie Zone-Smith, Hope Colyer, Cindy Williams and Al Nesmith also were involved in the project.  Currently, visitors to Medical University Hospital and Children’s Hospital wear visitor tags only in certain situations after 9 p.m. Under the new pilot project, all visitors must wear visitor tags, no matter what time they visit.  (A similar policy is in place at the MUSC Institute of Psychiatry.) Signs announcing the visitor pass requirement will be posted on each floor. When patients are admitted to the hospital, they will receive two laminated visitor passes from Admissions. Additional passes can be obtained at the North Tower’s first-floor information or security desks.  Moss noted that employees are responsible for knowing the people who belong in their areas, and assuring all employees and visitors prominently display their identification badges or visitor passes.  Please direct people who do not have valid identification to the North Tower entrance desks.  de’MEDICI Update Carol McDougall, MSN, coordinator of clinical and patient education, announced that a new, intranet version of de’MEDICI interactive health care education was introduced the first week of February. Employees will have access to different training programs, depending on their departments.  If you have questions about the training programs, please contact McDougall at 792-9779. If you have technically based questions, please call the CCIT help desk at 792-9700.