Return to Main Menu

Medical center town hall meeting Employee survey, accomplishments shared Editors' note: The medical center will sponsor the final town hall meetings at the Ashley River Tower Auditorium, 11 a.m. March 18 and 3 p.m. March 19.   Stuart Smith, vice president for operations and executive director of MUSC medical center, reviewed topics to be discussed in the 45-minute agenda: Quarterly organizational goals update; Ambulatory Care and IOP examples of best practices using MUSC Excellence initiatives; updates to action plans and Employee Perspective Survey results; summary of realignment (backfill) utilization plan for the university hospital; and review activities connected to move/opening of ART. Service—Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence Organizational goals update Service—Increase patient satisfaction (inpatient and ambulatory) to 75th percentile People—Continue to reduce annualized turnover of Medical Center employees to 11 percent. Currently at 9.6 percent but leaders are cautious because of ART new hires. Quality—Decrease mortality index to .80 Finance—Achieve an operating margin of 3 percent: the goal is currently at 3.5 percent. Supply expenses per adjusted discharge is not on track with the goal. Growth—Improvements needed to increase patient admissions (Currently at  0.4 percent of 7 percent goal). Outpatient visits is currently on track. Ambulatory Care patient satisfaction accomplishments Dave Neff, Ambulatory Care administrator, gave an update on the success of MUSC Excellence and Ambulatory Care. As the pilot department that embraced the MUSC Excellence initiative back in 2005, the department provided many examples of successful best practices to share with employees.   Ambulatory Care attributes its success with its focus on patient and staff satisfaction. They believe there is a defining connection between patient and employee/physician satisfaction.   Ambulatory Care has progressed from the 45th percentile (fiscal year 2005) to 62nd percentile (FY2007) and 75th percentile (January). By mid-February, the organization achieved the 80th percentile of its organizational goal.   Staff are committed to creating a positive and motivating work environment that’s supportive to hardwiring behaviors and encourages employees with the consistent use of AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation and Thank You) and other Press Ganey satisfaction tools and techniques.   In 2007, Ambulatory Care staff motivated employees using thank you notes, I’m an essential piece pins, new employee welcomes, etc., supports rounding for outcomes, communications practices and teamwork initiatives featuring daily team huddles and accountability practices. IOP Patient Satisfaction Accomplishments—Youth Inpatient (2North) Karen McHugh, R.N., nurse manager of the Child Adolescent unit (2North) addressed employees with their journey toward Excellence which began last April.    Staff, working with service chief Mark Wagner, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, initiated ideas that included new interventions in this child adolescent unit serving patients, ages 3-18. They included: improvements to discharge process (phone calls, survey-discharge room, etc.); use of AIDET in meetings involving staff and patients; improvements to waiting rooms and other common areas; use of child team packets and suggestion boxes to aid in feedback.   By October 2007, the area’s scores jumped to the 82nd percentile and by January their scores reached the 92nd percentile.   McHugh attributes to the unit's success with use of AIDET, use of a new patient discharge process and support from physicians/nurse managers and staff teamwork. People—Fostering employee pride and loyalty Joan Herbert, R.N., Institute of Psychiatry administrator, reviewed the top opportunities enhancing overall employee satisfaction resulting from the August employee perspectives survey: employee performance review system and involvement in decision-making, selection and retention of new employees. Involvement in active decision-making, selection, retention Reports indicate that about 40 percent (a quarter of all MUSC employees) of overall MUSC employee turnover can be attributable to within an employees’ first year of employment. To help improve these figures, the medical center wants to improve the employment process. Selection process—MUHA Human Resources asked all applicants to sign and accept a standards of behavior as part of the application process. Behavioral interviewing (hiring manager)— focuses on screening a candidate’s past performance as indicator for success Incorporating a peer interviewing (manager and peer team)—manager screens  top candidates and relies on trained high performers to be involved in peer interviewing and make recommendations 30-90 day visits (supervisor)—supervisor meets with employee within the first 30 and 90 days of employment to assess progress, identify and correct any problems MUHA leaders and peer interview trainees have completed training as of Feb. 29. Leaders and supervisors will receive refresher training in the March MUHA Leadership Development Institute. From April to June, organizers will begin training 600 MUHA staff to be peer interviewers. By July, the peer interviewing process will be implemented  in the practice of new hires. Performance Review System Leadership is interested in revamping the employee performance evaluation system to a tool that embraces certain elements of the current Leadership Evaluation Management (LEM) system used by more than 400 leaders as part of the MUSC Excellence initiative. LEM focuses on job descriptions, pillar-based goals, weights and measures for meeting each goal, use of a rating scale system and 90-day action plan and monthly report card to evaluate progress.   Hospital administration, MUHA HR, design team and focus group worked with the William Mercer Compensation Management Firm to establish the foundation of a Performance Review System product tailored to meet the hospital’s needs.   The new plan will: support MUSC Excellence goals; provide pillar-based evaluations and improved rating tools; provide greater differentiation between high and middle performance play and compare market rates based on funding capability of low performers-below market, middle at market rates, high to exceed market rates.   The plan will be communicated to employees in March and April. Management training will begin in May and June with the plan being implemented in July. Growth—Growing to meet the needs of those we serve University hospital realignment plan Dennis Frazier, administrator for facilities and capital improvements, reviewed the status of multiple projects following the February opening of ART.   The realignment effort, conducted in stages, supports numerous renovations and expansions within the main hospital to move specific services to areas that improves overall patient care. The university hospital (East, Center, West and Southwest) will provide vacant and backfill areas between March  and April 2010 when the main hospital realignment will be completed.   Among the main areas of renovation include the STICU, areas of the Children’s Hospital adult areas, Neurosciences and MICU. ART update The success of the move to ART was part of a two-year planning process directed by members of the Action Coordinating Committee .   The committee was charged with organizing the move  of equipment and supplies and patients on Feb. 2. Members of the committee formed an Incident Planning Group consisting of  hospital leadership and other specialists to help coordinate and track the safe move of 60 patients from the main hospital to ART on Feb. 4.     Friday, Marvh 14, 2008 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.