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Currents To Medical Center Employees: At the June 28 communications meeting Sue Pletcher, director of Patient Access and Health Information Services, reported to the management team a plan developed by the “Escort Work Group” to realign patient and visitor transportation services. Everyone’s cooperation is needed as we implement the new plan.  As with any change of this nature, there will likely be certain elements of the new plan that will need fine tuning as we move forward.  I commend the work group for their efforts in developing an action plan to enable patient transports to be handled in a cost effective and efficient manner.  Highlights of Ms. Pletcher’s report are outlined below.   The management team also enjoyed hearing about the new Heart and Vascular Center marketing campaign and seeing the television ad that will be aired this week.  Lynne Barber and Alex Sargeant of Business Development and Marketing gave an impressive summary of the work involved in the campaign as indicated below in this newsletter.    Helena Bastian, Medical Center Human Resources Director, also presented the new Human Resources Web site to the management team. She thanked Kim Haynes and David Bennett of Business Development and Marketing and Jane Smith of Human Resources for the hard work in development of the new Web site.    Finally, as we close out the fiscal year, I want to thank everyone for your outstanding work. We have continued to provide excellent care while setting new records in our admissions and outpatient activity. We have achieved our financial targets. We have devoted much work toward accomplishing our patient satisfaction goals and with our “Hardwiring Excellence” strategy for the upcoming fiscal year we will continue to place much emphasis on achieving excellence in all aspects of service. I will provide a more detailed summary of the progress made during fiscal year 2004/2005 soon.   Thanks to everyone for your dedicated work. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center   Meducare to begin shuttling patients Sue Pletcher, who chairs an escort task force, announced changes to begin Friday in MUSC’s policy of transporting patients. The current policy of using Public Safety to shuttle patients “has gotten out of hand,” she said, and she was asked to chair the task force to find a reasonable and fiscally accountable solution.   Pletcher said that for the transport of patients, “We will be using Meducare.” She presented guidelines the escort task force has drafted based on types of transport requests. View the guidelines at http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/staffToolbox/source/PatientTransports.htm.   This service is for patients who do not have any other means of transportation. Discretion should be used since this is not a “ free ” service.   All requests for transport should be made to the Meducare Dispatch Center at 792-7997. Public Safety no longer provides this service. Please provide patient name, location, requested time for pick-up and general condition of patient so the appropriate method of transportation is dispatched. Also provide the name of person authorizing the transport, the name of person calling in the request and a callback number.   Hospitalized patients being discharged to home must have social work authorize all transportation needs. Social workers or case managers should be the contact with Meducare Dispatch.   All Ambulatory Care patients needing this service will require Ambulatory Care social work staff approval. Social workers or case managers should be the contact with Meducare Dispatch.   Emergency Department and clinic patient transport requests will require the approval of the charge nurse, social worker, case manager or office manager. This includes transports from outlying clinics to MUSC downtown campus and vice versa and discharges from the ED.   The lowest level of appropriate transportation to safely transport the patient should be utilized.   Pletcher said that patient visitors had also been using the Public Safety escort service for transportation to and from local hotels. She said that cooperative arrangements are being made with hotels in the area to shuttle visitors to the hospital and return them to their hotel.   She also said that signs are being placed near courtesy phones throughout the hospital informing people of their location and giving direction and phone numbers for assistance. She said that the signs should be a great help for hospital employees as well when they stop to help a patient find an appointment location or locate a wheelchair. Ad Campaign Lynne Barber of the Medical Center’s Office of Business Development and Marketing Services presented a communications overview goals and strategies for promoting the MUSC Heart and Vascular Center, with a particular emphasis on chest pain.  The promotional plan involves a wide variety of communications tactics targeting physicians, EMS/first responders and consumers. Alex Sargeant presented highlights of the MUSC Medical Center’s consumer campaign—its TV spot, outdoor billboard and print ad.    The television spot will begin airing on all the local broadcast stations and cable networks tomorrow. The outdoor billboard will be going up in the next few weeks in two locations—at the base of the bridge going over to Mount Pleasant and also coming in on I-26. The print ad will run in the Post and Courier, The Moultrie News and other local newspapers beginning this weekend.   “With the television spot, we wanted to cut through the advertising clutter and differentiate MUSC from the other hospitals by doing something really different and unique,” Sargeant said. “I think we’ve managed to capture and maintain the viewer’s attention with beautiful imagery, stirring music, rich sound design and thought-provoking copy.”   Sargeant said that the intent is to draw the viewer in and get them watching and wondering where the spot is going before delivering the Heart and Vascular Center message. He said it connects with viewers on a deeper level, positions MUSC Heart and Vascular Center as the place when experiencing chest pain.   “The ad positions MUSC Heart and Vascular Center as the clear leader, with more expertise, more technology and more ways to care for a patient’s heart. Subliminally, we convey other positive attributes, such as intelligence, confidence, passion, a mastery of technology, expertise and a very keen sensitivity to the natural world and to human emotion,” Sargeant said.   The billboard and newspaper ads carry the same theme into their respective medium and reinforces the main messages without the audience having seen the TV spot first.     The newspaper campaign will kick off this weekend, Sargeant said. HR Update Helena Bastian, director of Human Resources, announced that the Human Resources Intranet Web site has been updated with a new look and “new and improved” features.    Bastian displayed the Web site (http://www.muschealth.com/benefit_cal/), pointing out the new fringe benefits calculator which provides employees and prospective employees with a detailed cost analysis of their total compensation package.   She also reminded staff of the “MyRecords” link where employees may view their pay stubs, benefits information, leave balances and personal demographics.  (MyRecords information is updated after the payroll has run each pay period.) Accessing MyRecords requires an MNA (MUSC Network Account) account number.    Employees may apply for an MNA account at http://www.musc.edu/infoservices/mna/.   Bastian also informed the group of a new Tuition Assistance Report that has been developed and is now available through the Impromptu Web Reports system (IWR). This report displays the amount of tuition assistance an employee has received this calendar year and the remaining balance of service commitment hours.   She reminded the group that the service commitment hours were based on tuition assistance received under the new Human Resources Tuition Assistance policy.   Friday, June 24, 2005 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.