Currents June 12
To Medical Center Employees:At the June 12 communications meeting the management team was briefed on the fiscal year 07/08 pay plan including merit (performance) increases planned for December. The pay plan is updated each year and is a component of our Human Resources Compensation Policy #15. The plan can be located on the Medical Center intranet Web site and is attached to the Human Resources Compensation Policy #15. Our pay plan is part of our FY budget and is subject to final approval by the Board of Trustees later this month.
The administrative team’s Employee Perspective Survey Action Plan has involved a careful assessment of our performance evaluation and compensation practices. We are committed to a competitive pay-for-performance plan aligned with best practices. Our ability to compensate competitively will always be hinged upon our attainment of financial goals.
We have worked with the William Mercer compensation management firm over the past year to review our compensation levels and to set the groundwork for a new pay-for-performance plan in the future. Mercer determined that overall we have competitive rates but we do not always hire at competitive rates for high demand jobs within our region. Mercer also indicated that we need to strike a balance between rewards for performance and experience.
To position our organization for a more performance-oriented pay plan in the future, we will be adjusting pay rates for a number of high demand jobs this July. Managers will be updating concerned employees.
Throughout this next year, we will continue to work with William Mercer to redesign our performance evaluation system and restructure our compensation policy. At this time future changes to our performance evaluation system and compensation structure are in a conceptual stage. In the future we anticipate funding for market equity and performance increases may be “pooled” to enable a greater pay differentiation for rewarding high performers. We will work out details over the course of the year with the goal of restructuring the performance evaluation system and compensation practices by the beginning of FY 08/09. We will discuss this and other topics at the July Town Hall meetings.
On another matter, we are into the hurricane season and everyone needs to be familiar with Medical Center policies dealing with weather emergencies and related staffing. We will be issuing additional details soon to remind everyone of our communication tools and other procedures for weather emergencies.
Thank you very much.
W. Stuart Smith
Vice President for Clinical Operations
and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center
Service: Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence
Tri-county disaster drill
Al Nesmith, director of Safety, Security and Volunteer Services, announced details about the June 12 Tri-county disaster drill. The activity will evaluate MUSC’s new Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) and preparedness.
HICS
helped guide the Medical
Center’s response in this countywide drill working with area police,
rescue workers and medical personnel. All communications were monitored
and verified by Nesmith and his staff as required by the Joint
Commission. Nesmith reminded managers that the drills are an
opportunity to test systems and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in
order to make improvements. Brian Fletcher, Clinical Services Disaster Preparedness coordinator, shared details about a new Clinical Services Disaster Call Tree for hospital employees and the hospital’s planned response to the drill.
If a disaster occurs, each unit should notify the designated unit(s) and document the time and name of each person notified on Clinical Services Disaster Call Tree.
During a disaster, a hospital unit representative should pick up a unit radio from Hospital Communications, North Tower (second floor), Room H243.
If a telephone outage occurs, the unit’s charge nurse should designate a runner to notify its designated unit(s).
All hospital units should call the Admit Transfer Center (792-3306) to report the following information:
a) Current number of available beds;
b) Number of discharges possible within the next one to two hours.
If normal telephone service is disrupted or a system failure occurs, units must use the system-failure phones and radios.
HICS, which is scenario-based, provides valuable training and guidance for critical personnel and their roles during a disaster event.
Friday, June 15, 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.