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MUSC Excellence at the Medical Center Employee communications, AIDET stressed Beginning this week, page 12 of The Catalyst will serve as a communication vehicle to share updates on activities of the Medical Center’s MUSC Excellence initiative. You will also see information on this page categorized by the five pillars—Service, People, Quality, Finance and Growth. Service: Communication Team—responsible for connecting the dots for employees to ensure staff understand the reasons and efforts behind establishing a culture of service and operational excellence.  The team is utilizing four primary vehicles to tell MUSC Medical Center’s journey  from good to great, including employee town hall meetings, communication boards, the MUSC Excellence Web site and The Catalyst.     Employee town hall meetings are quarterly meetings with senior leaders. They offer leaders a chance to communicate a consistent message to all employees and to share the organizational goals and results. The meeting's agenda are tied to the Medical Center's five pillars.    Communication boards were distributed to Medical Center leaders in March with an expectation that these be posted in staff areas by the end of March.  The boards allow staff to communicate consistently at the departmental level so that individuals know how he and his department are contributing to organizational goals. Information for updating communication boards will be available the last day of the month. A designated staff member is responsible for maintaining their board with appropriate information.   MUSC Excellence Web site was developed by the Communication Team to serve as a resource for all Medical Center staff to access updated information related to the MUSC Excellence initiative. Visit http://mcintranet.musc.edu/muscexcellence/index.htm. Employees with a Lynx computer workstation can access the Excellence Web site by clicking on the desktop icon.    The Catalyst will serve as the newsletter for MUSC Medical Center Excellence. Page 12 has traditionally been used to provide updates on Medical Center initiatives shared with leaders during the Tuesday Communications meeting.  This update, along with a letter from Stuart Smith, has been penned Currents. This update will continue and incorporate tools that progress organizational goals.  April’s standard of the month “Refrain from criticizing MUSC in the workplace and in front of customers.” This standard is intended to discourage employees from discussing issues that may be bothering them in front of patients or visitors. This standard is not intended, however, to prevent employees from raising issues which may bother them, or to prevent employees from exercising any constitutional right to free speech. Hospital administration encourages employees to report any issues or concerns to their supervisor, director, administrator, or other office as noted in Policy A-67, Code of Conduct. Patient Satisfaction Team updates   There are seven satisfaction teams who will regularly contribute information regarding current initiatives and best practices. They include: Adult Inpatient, Women's and Children's Inpatient, Institute of Psychiatry, Inpatient, Outpatient and Ancillary Services, Adult ED and Children's ED, as well as Physician Satisfaction. Institute of Psychiatry Patient Satisfaction Team has focused their roll-out of AIDET—Acknowledge the patient; Introduce yourself, your skill set, your professional credentials and your training; Duration with an explanation of the test and how long it will be to complete; Explanation of the test and what to expect; Thank you for choosing MUSC. The Adult Inpatient Satisfaction Team will  practice AIDET reinforcement featuring two initiatives—AIDET card distribution (an info card that can be placed behind the employee ID name badge) and AIDET Blitz. The AIDET Blitz is as follows: adult inpatient hospital leaders have been asked to donate one hour of time and take the AIDET role playing cart to adult inpatient areas (17 units). From March 26 to April 20, each unit is scheduled to be visited twice with the cart around 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays. The cart is stocked with candy and drinks to share with staff. The Women's & Children's Patient Satisfaction Team is working to improve the response rate on Press Ganey surveys.   These efforts include the use of laminated surveys and scripts located in every unit for staff to use when talking with parents. Additionally, the Women's and Children's team have placed Press Ganey posters in waiting areas, units and hallways to encourage parents to complete the survey once they receive it. People: April’s benefit of the month—Employee Referral Bonus (Employer of Choice Service Team).   Current employees who successfully recruit experienced, full-time registered nurses and other specified positions will be rewarded a bonus for the successful referral of such applicants. Look for more details to follow from the Employer of Choice Team. MUHA Excellence pillars goals Service—Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence People—Fostering employee pride and loyalty Quality—Providing quality patient care in a safe environment Finance—Providing the highest value to patients while ensuring financial stability Growth—Growing to meet the needs of those we serve Reward, recognition team focus to increase employees' ownership The charter of the Reward and Recognition Team is to create a culture of Excellence by reinforcing desired behaviors and rewarding and recognizing employees.   It is the charge of the team to implement Reward and Recognition programs that will increase the employees’ sense of ownership and responsibility to the hospital, fellow staff, patients and their families. Pillar awards were presented at the February Leadership Development Institute to recognize leaders. Quarterly Patient Satisfaction awards were presented to clinical areas. Departmental awards winners will be selected for February and Employee Appreciation Day is being planned. Recent changes are: Applause Award has been improved and Employee of the Month prizes have been added to the recognition; Catch a Shining Star card program was introduced; a projector located at the entrance to the cafeteria will soon be showcasing the WINS. In addition, the Reward and Recognition Program presentation is now available for use in staff meetings where the the current employees of the month can be seen.      To nominate someone for an Applause Award, make a nomination for the Physician of the Month Award or nominate an extraordinary nurse for the Daisy Award, visit http://mcintranet.musc.edu/muscexcellence/serviceteams/focus/rewardfocus.htm.    Medical Center strives to ‘harvest wins’ MUSC Excellence wants to take positive information learned and share it. This is called harvesting wins.   Leaders are expected to harvest wins and share these during staff meetings. This action makes staff feel they have a purpose and make a difference.   While staff meetings provide a forum for sharing deparmental or unit based wins, this area will provide an additional place to showcase MUSC Medical Center’s organizational wins.  The following wins are categorized by MUSC pillars. Service: increased Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores People: valet parking for ambulatory patients; standards of behavior developed for employees; commitment to by our employees; smoking limited to designated smoking facilities Quality: National Research Corporation Consumer Choice Award; Medal of Honor Award from Health and Human Services; recognition as one of the top centers in the nation for successful use of artificial heart device; Children’s Hospital Emergency Department recognized as a top ED by Child Magazine; Institute of Psychiatry selected as the state’s Hospital of the Year Finance: successful management of financial resources; national award for correctly coding patients to assure appropriate billing Growth: significant increase in inpatient admissions and outpatient visits; increased referrals to our specialists from physicians throughout the country; Phase 1 of new hospital facility expected to open in 2007. Friday, March 30, 2007 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 catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.