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MUSC Excellence at the Medical Center Employees, physician receive awards Service: Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence Standard of Behavior for June: telephone etiquette Telephone etiquette is very important and employees need to be mindful of how they “appear” to the caller. Employees are good will ambassadors of the Medical Center and are expected to make a positive impression on callers. The standard for answering a phone call is within three rings. Employees should answer with energy and vitality and state “good morning,” department name and “how may I help you?” (Sponsored by Ambulatory Care) People: Fostering employee pride and loyalty June Leadership Development Institute On June 6 and 7 the management team, including nearly all Medical Center supervisors with responsibility for hiring and evaluation, will take part in the sixth Leadership Development Institute (LDI). LDIs serve to train supervisors how to be better leaders.   The theme of the June LDI will be “Transitions.” The team members will reflect on accomplishments during the past 15 months, which have included the roll out of an array of best practices (“Must Haves”) associated with MUSC Excellence. Members will assess progress and discuss what needs to be done as MUSC moves forward to hardwire “Must Haves” and accomplish the pillar-based goals.   The “Must Haves,” which will be presented at the June LDI, will be “High/Middle/Low” (H/M/L) performer. H/M/L conversations involve helping employees to be successful. Most employees are good performers and the H/M/L conversations are positive and serve to re-recruit and energize. H/M/L conversations do not replace the performance evaluation, but serve to keep the performance evaluation process on track and ensure no surprises at performance evaluation time.   Following LDI training, the H/M/L process will begin with a focus on only the management team (all supervisors) during the next several months. Later, the H/M/L conversations will take place throughout the organization. The intent will be for H/M/L to become hardwired (i.e., a routine process).   Quint Studer will speak at LDI. Recently he asked that all supervisors complete an online survey. The survey questions served to measure the MUSC Excellence progress. Studer will use the survey results to help “look into the mirror” and “reconnect to the why.”   LDIs serve as one of the tools to help fulfill MUSC's overarching goal of making it a great place for patients to get care, a great place to work and a great place for physicians to practice medicine and teach. April Employees of the Month Each month the Rewards and Recognition Team reviews Applause cards submitted (electronically and hard copy) for outstanding work and selects the employee(s) of the month. Employees of the month demonstrate MUSC's service excellence commitment and values in their day-to-day work.  Listed below are the employees for April.   Laurie Funderburk, Pediatric Heart Catheter Lab. Recently, Funderburk donated leave time when a co-worker’s spouse was in the hospital on life support, not expected to recover.  This allowed her fellow staff member to be with family during this critical time without any additional financial concerns.   Lori Spencer, Institute of Psychiatry. Spencer is a wonderful member of the IOP team and always goes the extra mile for customers and clinicians. Using her resources of time and money, Spencer buys toys for the waiting room and decorations for the holidays. She leaves little treats in the clinicians’ offices. Recently, when a doctor was called suddenly away from IOP and a new patient was arriving, Spencer worked tirelessly to find another doctor to see the patient instead of rescheduling the appointment. She initiates improvements at the front desk in order to improve patient satisfaction scores.   Antionette Bowman, Institute of Psychiatry. A patient at the IOP would have missed his bus to Florida if Bowman had not made the extra effort to get him to Crisis Ministries to pick up his belongings.  Every step of the way, she offered help with such kindness and caring, showing flexibility and her smile. Physician of the Month awards presented Brad Sapp, M.D., was nominated for the Physician of the Month award because he showed excellent bedside manner with a very sick patient, especially with planning the discharge. Part of the nomination read: “The patient went home with 19 medications, many of which were new, and Dr. Sapp spent hours making sure the patient’s husband was confident in caring for his wife. Before leaving the bedside for the last time, Dr.  Sapp was very sincere and empathetic with his goodbye, as he had cared for this patient many days in her lengthy hospital stay. Dr. Sapp made my job as a nurse facing a very tedious discharge easy and I have so much gratitude toward him for this as did the patient and her husband. The patient’s husband had many nice things to say about the care his wife had received while at MUSC and went home with confidence in caring for his wife. Dr. Sapp was very attentive and detail oriented with this patient’s care.” June Benefit of the Month—Long-Term Care Insurance Did you know that one out of every two people in the USA today will need long-term care (LTC) at some point in their life time and this number climbs to more than 70 percent  as individuals live past age 65?  What is LTC and how do we know if we need to buy insurance coverage for it?   LTC is the day-to-day assistance needed when someone has a serious illness or disability that may last for an extended period of time, and are unable to take care of himself. Despite its name, long-term care isn’t always long term. A person may need care for only a few months to recover from surgery or illness.     What does LTC insurance assist in covering? Examples of situations that LTC coverage assists with include daily activities such as bathing, eating and dressing; skilled nursing care or rehabilitation training in a nursing facility or at home; and cognitive impairment support for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.   What LTC insurance coverage options are available to Medical Center employees? The South Carolina Employee Insurance Program offers three LTC insurance for purchase to eligible employees and their immediate family through Aetna, the state’s program provider. A disability plan and two service reimbursement plans are available.    Since there are three different levels of coverage,  employees need to be educated on the subject before applying. Employees can either pick up literature at the Benefits Desk in the Human Resources office or visit the Aetna Web site at http://www.aetna.com/group/southcarolina/.  Then click on SC.   Enrollment forms can also be downloaded from the site or picked up in the HR office. Submit the original forms to HR rather than sending them to Aetna.   To speak to someone at Aetna, call (800) 537 8521 or the Benefits Desk at 792-0826.      Friday, June 1, 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.