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Currents To Medical Center Employees: In keeping with our commitment to open communication our next quarterly Medical Center town hall meetings will be held at 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31 and at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 1. The meetings will be held in 2 West Amphitheater and will last for one hour with 30 minutes being devoted to questions and answers. Among other topics we plan to share the preliminary results of the employee satisfaction survey.   I am asking the management team to encourage attendance. Questions raised during the town hall meeting will be addressed, but, anyone who would like to suggest topics or raise questions in advance for discussion during the town hall meetings may send suggestions or questions to Teresa Rogers (rogerste@musc.edu).   Finally, we are now in the midst of the hurricane season. The management team should ensure that all employees are familiar with department-based plans and key elements of the Medical Center Weather Emergency Policy A-64, Medical Center Staffing During Disasters and Emergencies Policy A-42, and the Medical Center H R Hazardous Weather Policy #13. Anyone who has questions should contact their respective manager. Thank you very much. W. Stuart Smith Vice President for Clinical Operations and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center Computer training process reviewed Patient care systems analyst and trainer, Cinnamon Buelk, presented a computer training overview for new hires that covered the process for getting new hires their computer accounts and training, who gets computer training from OCIO, when the training is held and what the training covers. What is the process for getting New Hires their computer accounts and training? On Monday of MUHA HR orientation week, OCIO Trainers: Collect signed, corrected “Uni-form” Security Agreement from new hires in the 2-West Amphitheater; they explain and reference C-27 the computer use policy; and have students sign up for class time. After security agreements are collected, trainers create a spreadsheet of all new hires and start the account creation process. New hires must be in orientation on Monday to sign up for the class, Buelk emphasized. The accounts that are created are the MUSC network account, LYNX and Webapps, Groupwise (e-mail), OACIS, only if clinical of need access to patient data, and HARP for inpatient registered nurses only. Who gets training from OCIO? All new MUHA employees, IOP associates, Ambulatory Care associates, Clinical Services associates, and student techs are OCIO-trained. Buelk said that the account creation process replaces magic and egg production techniques with a well-oiled machine to streamline the account creation process. Many IS teams work together to produce multiple I-Ds within a 24-hour window, utilizing one security form and working off one spreadsheet.   Buelk said that employees who do not attend Monday’s Human Resources orientation can receive training by having their manager contact one of the trainers to get the proper security form filled out and to register the person for class.   The trainers are: Cinnamon Buelk, 792-8072, buelkc@musc.edu, and Rhonda Randolph, 792-4843, randolpr@musc.edu.   “If you send someone to class without notifying trainers and they have no I-Ds, we must send them away,” she said. “So please do not have the student call and leave a message about which class they will attend that week.” Employees who do not get this training are Crothall personnel (Environmental Services contract staff), Sodexal personnel (Dietary contract staff), and Carolina Family Care personnel. When is new hire training? On new hire weeks, training is held on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to noon for IOP employees (not IOP RNs), on Thursday from 8 a.m to noon for Ambulatory Care employees, and on non-new hire weeks on Friday from 8 a.m. to noon for in-patient MUHA and IOP RNs.   For an online listing of exact new hire training dates, go to http://www.musc.edu/infoservices/training and click on MUHA/IOP/UMA New Employee Orientation. The site includes a description of what is covered. What’s covered in class? LYNX (network basics and troubleshooting); Printing; Paging (SimonWeb - Who’s on call?); MUSC Intranet, including policies and procedures and the employee toolbox; Clinical Order Forms, to be covered with RNs only; and GroupWise (e-mail basics).   The second half of the class is devoted to employees who work with patients and includes: OACIS (Clinical Data Repository)—Labs, Radiology, Clinical Notes, etc.; RNs (Inpatient)—HARP (Home Agency Referral Program); Census Management (Accept, Transfer, Discharge and Update via OACIS), C3 (Clinical Computerized Charting—review basics)—note: RNs must still attend separate training on this before permission is granted—MAR Discrepancy Database, Nurse Intensity Database (Acuity); Radiology Requests (radiologyrequest.musc.edu); and E*Value (Physician Privileges and Comment/Concern Cards)   Buelk said that certain departments have requested their people come on certain days—inpatient RNs (Fridays), OR and ED RNs (Thursday morning) and Ambulatory Care (Thursday afternoon). Buelk or Randolph can be contacted if a manager wants employees directed to attend a specific new hire class time or day. JCAHO Lois Kerr outlined JCAHO’s National Patient Safety Goals for 2006: Reconciliation of medications and fall reduction program. Also, she cited previous goals that have become JCAHO standards.   The 2006 goals are: Improve the accuracy of patient identification: Use at least two patient identifiers (neither to be the patient's room number) whenever administering medications or blood products; taking blood samples and other specimens for clinical testing, or providing any other treatments or procedures. Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers: For verbal or telephone orders or  for telephonic reporting of critical test results, verify the complete order or test result by having the person receiving the order or test result read-back the complete order or test result; Standardize a list of abbreviations, acronyms and symbols that are not to be used throughout the organization; Measure, assess and, if appropriate, take action to improve the timelines of reporting, and the timeliness of receipt by the responsible licensed caregiver, of critical test results and values; Implement a standardized approach to hand off communications, including an opportunity to ask and respond to questions. Improve the safety of using medications: Standardize and limit the number of drug concentrations available in the organization; Identify and, at a minimum, annually review a list of look-alike/sound-alike drugs used in the organization and take action to prevent errors involving the interchange of these drug; Label all medications and medication containers (syringes, basins, cups) or other solutions on and off the sterile field in perioperative and other procedural settings. Reduce the risk of health care associated infections: Comply with current U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and hand hygiene guidelines; Manage as sentinel events all identified cases of unanticipated death or major permanent loss of function associated with health care associated infection. Accurately and completely reconcile patient medications across the continuum of care: Implement a process for obtaining and documenting a complete list of patient’s current medications upon the patient's admission to the organization and with the involvement of the patient. This process includes a comparison of the medications the organization provides to those on the list; A complete list of the patient’s medication is communicated to the next provider of service when it refers or transfers a patient to another setting, service, practitioner or level of care within or outside the organization. Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls: Implement a fall reduction program and periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Kerr’s full presentation given at the Aug. 9 Medical Center communication meeting will be available at the Medical Center Web site, http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/.   The JHACO standards manual can be found online along with frequently asked questions at http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/jhaco/.   Friday, Aug. 12, 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.