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Currents To Medical Center Employees: At the Feb. 8 communication meeting we heard updates from Carol Younker, Medical Center risk manager, and Helena Bastian, Human Resources director. Their updates provided examples of initiatives being taken by work groups involved in two of our five tactical plan initiatives including our efforts to be recognized as the “provider of choice” (patient satisfaction) and “employer of choice” (staff satisfaction).  Ms. Younker, provider of choice work group champion, explained that our patient satisfaction surveys indicate we lack consistency in how we greet and interact with patients and visitors. To address this, the work group developed “scripts” that everyone will be expected to use. Scripting is not an unusual practice for organizations focused on ensuring exceptional customer service. The scripts, as explained in more detail in this newsletter, need to be incorporated in our day-to-day communication and working relations. I ask that everyone demonstrate our commitment to service excellence by using these scripts. Helena Bastian, employer of choice work group champion, summarized changes being made to fine tune our paid time off (PTO) policy as indicated in this newsletter. The changes were recommended by the recruitment and retention committee and are intended to enable more flexibility with use of leave.  Also, Mrs. Bastian announced a revision to the tuition assistance policy.  This revision was in response to employees’ concerns raised regarding service commitments upon being reimbursed for tuition. The Medical Center encourages professional development and employee retention. Last year more than $500,000 of tuition assistance was funded. While our hope is high performers will remain employed at MUSC indefinitely, the tuition assistance policy revision reduces the amount of time one must remain employed with the Medical Center without having to return (“repay”) monies provided for tuition reimbursement. Thank you very much.   W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center HR reviews feedback on policy revisions  Medical Center Human Resources director Helena Bastian listed employer-of-choice policy revisions, “based on feedback received from the Recruitment and Retention Committee and staff. These modifications to the following HR policies have been made as we strive to be the employer of choice,” Bastian said. Tuition Assistance Policy #17: Service Commitment (Section D.3) ...one month of full-time employment for each $400 (of) tuition assistance received. PTO Policy #18: PTO and ESL scheduling (Section E.2) A non-exempt employee who has been employed less than one year may request up to 24 hours of leave without pay in an effort to build his or her PTO bank. Managers may consider an exempt employee’s (who has been employed less than one year) request for leave without pay in full day increments. Request will be approved in consideration of staffing needs.  (Section E.3) Occassionally a non-exempt employee may need to leave early or arrive late due to personal emergency of business reasons. In this event, the employee may request up to two hours of leave without pay with manager’s (or designee) approval. (Section E.4) An employee must submit a leave request form for management approval regardless the type of leave being requested (i.e., PTO, ESL, LWOP). PTO and Modified ESL (Section F.1) ESL may be accessed directly for inpatient and outpatient surgery/procedure. Outpatient surgery/procedure is defined as a surgery/procedure that requires sedation and/or anesthesia (beyond local anesthesia) and a recovery period. (Section F.2.a) An employee who has a relapse of the same illness for which 24 hours of PTO and/or leave without pay has been charged within two weeks of the original absence may access ESL. A doctor’s statement may be required at the request of the employee’s manager. Holidays (Section H.3) Employees of departments (offices) that are closed have the option of requesting accrued PTO or leave without pay. Additional Retention Initiatives:  The Performance Pay Plan will include a provision for employees meeting the established criteria to “cash in” up to 40 hours twice a year (this provision will be dependent on the Medical Center’s cash flow situation). Increase employee awareness of secondary employment opportunities. Tactical Plan Carol Younker, manager of the Medical Center’s Office of Risk Management, presented scripting as a Service Excellence policy for the Medical Center. Scripting is a prescribed set of words and behaviors carefully designed to send a message and include the right words and the use of positive body language, such as maintaining eye contact, smiling and giving full attention to the customer, Younker said. “And it’s not robotic. It’s a personalized communication with a pre-determined set of words/behaviors.” So, why script? It assures consistency of a message across the organization, prevents customers from hearing conflicting messages and it ensures that all the important elements of a conversation are covered. A good script: Can be critical in changing customer attitudes on the spot.  “I realize it may take awhile for the doctor to see you. Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable while you wait?” Can help employees find words that will allow them to handle things well when they are facing an unhappy patient of family member and may become flustered or offended by someone’s comments or behavior. “We clearly are not meeting your expectations and I am very sorry for that. I’d like to help make things better.” Can make the most of a negative experience. “I am so sorry you have had this experience. This is not the way we like for things to happen at MUSC.” Encourages customers to feel good about our service and therefore rate us higher on our patient satisfaction surveys. “We want to make sure you experience the best of care here at MUSC.”  When answering the phone, speak slowly and smile. Younker said that a smile on the telephone actually changes the speaker’s voice and gives the customer a more pleasant and helpful greeting. And when greeting a patient or visitor, make eye contact and hold it. Scripting success? Managers must consistently expect that employees will use scripting Managers must test whether employees are using scripts: call in, observe interactions, get collateral reports, GWN survey results Managers must give positive feedback to employees who use scripting successfully (on the spot and in EPMS). When does this start? Now! Now! Now! Endorsed by the administration on Jan. 27 The scripting program will be integrated by way of new employee orientation, First Impressions, GME, Competency Days, and in many other venues. Start with phone scripting Select appropriate scripts for “greeting the patient” and “handing off the patient.” Have staff observe each other and give feedback Determine opportunities for scripting that are specific to your service area. The goal of scripting is to engender customer loyalty, Younker said. “In order to bring up our ‘Would you recommend’ scores, we need to develop loyal customers. Customer loyalty develops when an organization has frontline caregivers that are not only courteous, but who also demonstrate true empathy and compassion.” The first step, she said, is for every employee to be a courteous employee. Empathy and compassion will follow. Scripting samples will be posted on the Tactical Plan Web site under Provider of Choice, Tips for Staff. Horizon Business Insight  In the Feb. 1 hospital communications meeting, Rachel Herbert gave a brief overview of a new application that will be available to the Medical Center management team. The program is called Horizon Business Insight (HBI). The product provides one-stop shopping for easy, secure intranet access to critical management information via the web browser. It will allow us to distribute routing management reports and scorecards/dashboards. End users will have the ability to drill down into the data and manipulate the data to answer questions as they arise. Users can manipulate rows, columns, time dimensions, drill down paths, as well as change the type of graph.  To date members of the HBI Oversight Steering Committee, administrators, and outcome managers have been trained on the use of the system. The next level of training will be the clinical services business managers. This will be followed by department directors and managers.    Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.