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Currents We are continuing to closely monitor the legislative process in the State General Assembly relating to Medicaid funding, as reported in previous newsletters. The budget passed by the House of Representatives, according to our best estimates, would result in a loss to MUSC of approximately $22 million over this fiscal year. We are doing our part to advocate on behalf of the Medical Center to help mitigate the proposed cuts. The Medical Center leadership team has been in touch with other major hospitals in our state to see how they plan to deal with cuts of this magnitude. Clearly, some very difficult decisions would have to be made.  The State Senate has now begun its budget deliberations. We are hopeful that the Senate will take measures to substantially improve the funding. It will likely be late May before the state budget is finalized. We will continue to carefully monitor the budget bill deliberations and provide you updates during the next few months. We will hope for the best while preparing for the worst. Thank you very much. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center Chair, 1999 Trident United Way Campaign   Medication brought from home is a patient safety issue Often patients are encouraged to bring their medications with them to the hospital to help physicians and others know exactly what medications the patient is taking at home. The MUSC Medical Center supports this practice, but also wants to ensure that medications are not left at the patient’s bedside.   Addressing the management team at the March 26 communications meeting, Rosemary Ellis, director of quality, emphasized that if medications are not sent home with a family member then two actions need to occur: 1. The medications should be placed in a locked box in the medication room or in the locked drawer of the medication cart. 2. The registered nurse attending the patient will document the location of the medications on the admission database.   “The only medications that may be kept at bedside are those ordered by the physician,” she said. For more information about procedure, see Clinical Services Policy #61 Medication Administration.   Ellis also gave an update on the response to the Patient Safety Survey first distributed in February. As of this writing, the response rate was 14 percent. “We are trying to increase the response rate,” Ellis said.   The survey can be accessed from the http://www.musc.edu homepage using either Netscape or IE browser. Results from this survey will be used to complete the Patient Safety Program and the findings will be distributed to the management team.   The survey can be accessed online at  http://bfs.itlab.musc.edu/ms/safety.php.    For more information, contact Ellis at 792-0855. Protected health information under review  The MUSC Health Information Security office is in the process of assessing and analyzing the privacy of protected health information of all MUSC hospital cost centers, to maintain compliance with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).   The purpose is to minimize the risk of inappropriate disclosure, misuse, loss or corruption of protected health information. These could occur as a result of unattended fax machines and encryption of data sent via the Internet.   Sharon Knowles, manager for Health Information Security, announced that during the next five to six weeks, trained interns will be conducting person-to-person interviews of managers to collect information that will be used to assess the areas of greatest risk for inadvertent exposure of protected health information. The interns will be contacting managers to schedule times for the interviews.   The final compliance report will be submitted to HIPAA by April 14, 2003.   As part of an update, Knowles described the seven HIPAA subcommittees that have been established to ensure institutionwide compliance with HIPAA standards. The subcommittees are: Electronic Transactions and Code Sets Privacy Security Legal Training and Education Research Communications The implementation plan for the subcommittees includes planning and input; gap analysis for privacy and security to evaluate the facility risk for violation of HIPAA standards; audits; follow up to any concerns raised by patient advocates, managers, patients and employees or physicians; and investigations of computer access. Join Team MUSC for the Cooper River Bridge Run, Walk Join Team MUSC and participate in the April 6 Cooper River Bridge Run and Walk, Charleston’s biggest event of the year. This is the 25th year of the event.    Lynne Barber, director of Marketing Communications, urged MUSC managers to invite their staff members and others to join in the fun as a volunteer or runner/walker. “The goal of Team MUSC is to let the community know how much we support an individual’s journey to health and wellness,” Barber said. Team members traditionally include employees, students, patients and family members who use the bridge as their personal motivation to stay fit, lose weight or overcome health challenges.   Each Team MUSC member will receive a newly designed team T-shirt. On the day of the Bridge Run, team members are encouraged to wear the new shirts to show their support.   If you would like to join Team MUSC to walk or run in the race, first register with the Cooper River Bridge Run to participate in the event.  (Call the Bridge Run hotline at 792-0345 or 792-6611 for registration information.) On Thursday, April 4 - Friday, April 5, the Team MUSC booth will be at the Gailliard Auditorium for the Bridge Run Exposition and packet pickup. MUSC will be there from 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. on both days signing up participants.   “We need more volunteers,” Barber said. If you would like to volunteer or have other questions, please contact Willette Smith at smithwi@musc.edu. New human resources director, nurse manager named Helena Bastian has been named as the new director of Human Resources for the Medical University Hospital Authority. Bastian formerly held the joint position of associate administrator at Charleston Memorial Hospital and MUHA Human Resources staff development and training manager. The effective date was March 14. Administrator Betts Ellis, who made the announcement, thanked those who took part in the search process.   Maureen Decker is the new nurse manager for 7 West, announced Peggy Simmons, director of Therapeutic Services.  She has held a number of positions at MUSC, including staff nurse on 5 West; chief nurse of the Burn Unit; patient care coordinator for the Medicine Division; physician liaison with Marketing and most recently Hospital Services coordinator.