Return to Main Menu

Currents To Medical Center Employees: The planning process for a new hospital facility remains on track. At a recent communications meeting, Marion Woodbury, special assistant to MUSC President Greenberg, gave an update on the planning process. Highlights of his presentation are outlined below.      In mid-November, we announced plans to schedule a Medical Center Managers’ retreat to assess our past performance and review our strategic plan and priorities. We have decided to delay the retreat until early March. This delay will enable us to devote a portion of the retreat on facility programming for Phase I of the replacement hospital. Our selected architects, NBBJ, will officially begin their design and programming work the first week of January. Reviewing preliminary findings with the entire management team in a retreat setting will be ideal.      Aside from the new hospital facility planning, other priorities for the year include completion of ongoing renovations, preparation for the JCAHO survey expected in November, continued focus upon customer service, improving our financial performance, addressing the bed shortage, and employee retention.    I appreciate everyone’s commitment to excellence in care and service and look forward to another challenging year.   W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center   STARLIGHT Productions Presents: ‘Apollo 13,’ starring Rosemary Ellis After showing the “Houston, we have a problem” scene from “Apollo 13” at the Dec. 17 communications meeting, Rosemary Ellis reviewed the Healthcare Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for managers. Ellis identified HFMEA as “a prospective assessment that identifies and improves steps in a process to ensure a safe and clinically desired outcome.” A systematic approach, the goal of a HFMEA is to identify and prevent product and process hazards.  According to Ellis, healthcare organizations are required to complete one HFMEA annually. To date, the organization has completed one on elective surgeries and initiated work on pain control analgesia. Ellis concluded with an example of  HFMEA using the following steps: define a topic, establish a multidisciplinary team, describe the process with a flow diagram, conduct a hazard analysis listing all failure modes, and suggest actions needed to remedy the problem.  Update on the new hospital Marion Woodbury of the president’s office delivered a report on the status of the new hospital. Woodbury stated that a financial consultant would be named soon and that an architect had been selected to build the new hospital, the NBBJ firm.     A first set of single line drawings is expected from the firm on April 15, a rather important date as several other major steps towards the new hospital are expected by then.     Woodbury mentioned MUSC’s relationship with the VA hospital will be decided by March 15, and the future looks positive in reference to the new hospital. He also said the City of Charleston is currently addressing traffic and drainage issues before final approval of any new ordinances pertinent to the new hospital. MUSC hopes to break ground in early 2004. CVL Web page to make life easier for MUSC staff Sheila Scarbrough, Children’s Services, and the CVL Task Force revamped MUSC’s Central Venous Catheter policy and demonstrated to managers that eighteen months of hard work had really paid off. “People have asked me how you come up with a 29-page policy on central venous catheters,” she said. “Here’s how.”     Scarbrough and her team created a database complete with pictures and descriptions of every central venous catheter used in the hospital, pooled all policies related to central venous catheters, and centralized those policies in the Medical Center Manual. They also standardized flush routines via IV Flush Order sheets for adults and pediatrics and created a checklist for R.N. competency concerning central venous catheters.    “The CVL Web page is a one-stop shop for all central line issues,” she said. This page can be accessed via the MUSC Web site at http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/cvl/index.html.