MUSC Excellence at Medical Center
Quarterly patient
satisfaction recognized
Service: Serving the public with
compassion, respect and excellencePatient Satisfaction Banner winners
The Reward and Recognition Team awarded patient satisfaction banners for the third quarter. These winners were selected as a result of the Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores.
Congratulations
to the following areas, which are displaying the banners in patient
care areas: Children’s Hospital and Perinatal Service: 8D (81st
percentile) and 7C Honor Roll (99th percentile); Medical Center
(inpatient): 2 Joint Replacement Unit (90th percentile); Institute of
Psychiatry: 4North inpatient (57th percentile) and Adult Residents
Clinic outpatient (91st percentile); Ambulatory Care: Prenatal Wellness
Center (97th percentile); Dermatologic Surgery (96th percentile);
Pediatric Orthopaedics (83rd percentile); and Specialty Care North
Dermatology (95th percentile). Most improved overall was West Ashley
Orthopaedics (86th percentile, from 18th percentile)Adult ED adds TVs for private rooms
In April, the Adult Emergency Department (ED) began installing TVs in private patient rooms. Eight rooms have received the TVs and ED is in the process of installing them in the remainder of the private rooms. The project should be completed in June.
People: Fostering employee pride and loyalty
March Employees of the Month
Isabel Detzler, Interpreter Services, assisted a Hispanic family whose 3-month-old infant became ill and died. Detzler stayed with the parents during their ordeal, remaining after her shift to assist the family. She walked them to and from the funeral home and assisted them as they made final arrangements.
Charlie Sander, Biomedical Engineering, was recognized for researching and installing a customized nurse call unit to aid a young, recently paralyzed patient.
Miriam Taylor, Transplant Center, was caught in the act of escorting a visitor trying to find the ICU. The visitor was so lost he was actually on the campus of the College of Charleston.
Dan Altman, Support Services, assisted staff with an inpatient admitted after hours by bringing pillows to the unit, changing the curtain in a patient's room and removing all of the dirty laundry from the unit with the help of another employee. He did all of this after-hours, while in his suit.
Physician of the Month Awards
Andrew Savage, M.D.—Savage is a pediatric cardiology resident rotating through the Pediatric Cardiology Intensive Care Unit (PCICU). He makes an effort to take all aspects of patient care into consideration before making medical decisions. He listens to his attending physician’s recommendations and also to the concerns of the nursing staff and the patient’s family. One day, Savage sat at the nurse’s station with a 4-year-old patient talking and playing with her to allow the nurse to catch up on her other duties. Savage has also proven himself to be an excellent educator, working with other health care team members to brainstorm ways to increase the likelihood of positive patient outcomes. His interpersonal skills allow for greater continuity of care.
Jason Adams, M.D.—Adams, a resident in medicine and psychiatry, placed himself in a caring family member position as he sat calmly in a chair explaining the multiple choices, procedures, consequences, and reasoning to this patient and her family regarding hospice. Adams exudes care, compassion, ethics and professionalism.
Robert Malcolm, M.D.—Malcolm, Psychiatry, treats and approaches everyone with whom he comes in contact with such respect and kindness, regardless of who the person is. Not only is he a kind and humble man, but he is also a knowledgeable and skilled physician. He fully investigates patients' complaints and family concerns. A few examples that set him apart are: he greets everyone he meets with respect; he brings in little things for staff such as desserts when they have to work a holiday; nothing appears to be “beneath him” to assist a patient, such as helping them put on their shoes; he respects nursing staff’s opinion and asks for input; and he is respectful and kind to patients.
First Medical Center new employee reception hosted
The event was hosted May 16 by the Rewards and Recognition team, the Employer of Choice team and hospital administration as a way to welcome new employees who completed the first 90 days of employment. The reception was held in the Storm Eye Institute Atrium from 5 to 7 p.m. in an effort to capture both the day and night staff. This event will be held quarterly.
MUSC Excellence new employee training program
The MUSC Excellence new employee training program began in May. This program is designed to engage new employees in the fundamentals of MUSC Excellence. Employees will receive training in the following areas: an overview of MUSC Excellence; expectations set forth in the Standards of Behavior; steps in Service Recovery; AIDET/Key Words at Key Times (Acknowledge-Introduce-Duration-Explanation-Thank you); and expectations of Rounding.
All employees hired on or after March 1 are required to attend a training session between 30 to 90 days of hire date. Employees must register for training online via CATTS. For information, call Lindsay Perry at 792-1136.
Quality: Providing quality patient care in a safe environment
Heart & Vascular Center completes quality initiatives
During the last year, the Heart & Vascular Center (HVC) has implemented various quality initiatives that have measurably contributed to excellence in quality care. The collaborative efforts of the Heart & Vascular Center, Emergency Department, Department of Quality and the EMS Services were productive in shortening the time to treat heart attack patients. The median time from hospital arrival to successful dilatation and stenting of occluded coronary vessels in patients with this condition (aka “door-to-balloon” time) was 58 minutes. “In just more than a year, we have managed to treat these patients more than twice as fast as before, and a full 32 minutes more quickly than the latest national recommendation of 90 minutes. HVC strives to provide patient-centric quality of care,” said Natalia Luna Maffei Corica, Department of Quality.
MUSC is in great standing with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and has currently surpassed all national hospital compliance rates in all 12 CMS’ mandatory core quality of care measures. MUSC’s Heart & Vascular Center also participates in several national quality programs, such as the American College of Cardiology-National Cardiovascular Database Registries’ on Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators and Percutaneous Coronary Interventions, and the Society of Vascular Surgery’s Registry on Carotid Artery Stenting procedures.
HVC also is part of the Get with the Guidelines Heart Failure & Coronary Artery Disease programs sponsored by the American Heart Association. The goal of these programs is the prevention of cardiovascular complications among patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure (HF) by promoting therapies according to the latest best practice guidelines. In breaking with the mold, HVC is opting for the concurrent, yet resource intensive, assessment of quality of care rendered to hospitalized CAD and HF patients over the most commonly used retrospective approach.
“This initiative is one way in which we are contributing to excellence,” said Peter Zwerner, M.D., assistant professor, Division of Cardiology. “If a patient varies from the recommended AHA guidelines, then staff can look closely at that patient and determine the reasons for that variation. There are often appropriate reasons, but we just want to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.”
Other perceived advantages of the concurrent approach include encouraging the staff to actively participate and learn from this process, thus eliciting a mindset change towards the adoption of a self-sustaining organizational culture of quality of care improvement.
“We want to continue moving forward with quality and patient satisfaction initiatives.” said Eric Powers, M.D., medical director of HVC, Ashley River Tower.
Friday, May 25, 2007
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