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Currents To Medical Center Employees: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to make   hospital care transparent to the public. One of those efforts includes measuring the patient’s experience of care in a hospital. We will be required to take part in the survey as a condition for participation in the Medicare program. The aggregate results of the survey will be periodically published for public consumption. Consumers will be able to access the information through a CMS website and through other media to help in determining which hospitals provide the best care.  MUSC will be making preparations to take part in the survey.  In the past we have achieved high levels of patient satisfaction and this should continue to serve us well in the future when the CMS patient experience of care results are published.  Additional details about the survey will be disseminated over the next few months.  Thank you very much. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center STAR Productions presents JCAHO Update: Patient, Family Education According to Karen Rankine, Clinical and Patient Education coordinator, the goal of patient and family education is the improvement of patient health outcomes by promoting healthy behavior and involving the patient and families in care and care decisions.  Rankine demonstrated this concept by showing a video created for Hispanic women who need information con-cerning their hospital stay while delivering a new baby.  The following are JCAHO standards concerning patient and family education: The design of educational processes for provision and coordination of patient education activities must promote and maintain health, foster self-care, and improve outcomes. Necessary resources are available contingent upon patients’ assessed needs and abilities. The patient education process is coordinated among appropriate staff or disciplines, reflective of educational assessment, and should be an interdisciplinary collaboration among team members. The patient receives education and training specific to assessed needs, abilities, learning preferences, and readiness to learn. Effectiveness should be monitored though an ongoing and interactive process, and staff continue to identify ongoing learning and educational needs of the patient. Patients must be educated on admission, throughout the hospital stay, and on clinic visits. Some barriers to patient learning are unable to read/unable to write, language/cultural, cognition, religion, impaired vision/hearing, or financial barriers. Readiness to learn can also be a barrier to learning. Some examples include physical (pain, fatigue), emotional (anxiety,depression), lack of motivation, or unreceptive.  Patient education must include information about safe and effective use of medications, nutrition, pain and pain treatment, other available resources, responsibilities in care, self-care activities, discharge instructions, and academic education.  Announcements Katy Kuder, Benefits and Records coordinator, told managers about the success of Military Appreciation Day held in the Basic Science Building Auditorium May 8. Kuder said it was “a hit” with veterans, reservists and their families, as well as the program demonstrating how much MUSC cares for their employees. Kuder credited Geoffrey Freeman, Educational Technology Services and Distance Education director and colonel in the Army Reserves, and Bud Cooper, TV Services for the moving video presentation.  Rosemary Ellis, quality director, reminded managers of the trend to make hospital procedures and policies more transparent to the public eye via reports over the Internet. She suggested that managers visit the medical center intranet to remain abreast of policy changes and new procedures. For additional information, visit http://www.musc.edu/qn/PatientSafety/StaffInformation/.