To Medical Center Employees:
At the Oct. 19 communications meeting, Carline Waiters, Environmental Services Area Cleaner for MUH 7 West, was recognized for being selected Employee of the Month. Kathy Stockholm, Environmental Services Operational Manager stated that Ms. Waiters has a big heart, is personable and friendly and is here for our patients and families. Of significance, our Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey results for 7 west for the quarter ending Sept. 30 indicate the 99^th percentile for “courtesy of person cleaning room.” Congratulations to Ms. Waiters.

The following units achieved exceptional patient satisfaction results for the quarter ending September 30:

Thanks to everyone involved in achieving these outstanding results.

Finally, plans have been made for a series of 45 minute medical center town hall meetings beginning Nov. 3 at the times and locations listed below. Agenda topics will include an update on our fiscal year goals; an overview of our employee performance evaluation results; organization-wide employee partnership action plan; recognition of outstanding employees and physicians; discussion of plans to convert to a new patient satisfaction survey tool; discussion of our hand hygiene initiatives; and highlights of how health care reform will affect us. Not indicated in the schedule below are some town hall meetings for large departments that will be held in place of the routine department-based meetings.

Thank you very much.

W. Stuart Smith
Vice President for Clinical Operations
and Executive Director, MUSC Medical Center

Town Hall Meeting Schedule:

Nov 3: 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., 2 West Amphitheater; Nov. 4: 11 a.m., ART Auditorium; Nov 8: 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., SEI Auditorium; Nov. 9: 7:30 a.m. ART Auditorium and 10 a.m., Hollings (HCC) Auditorium; Nov. 10: 2 p.m., ART Auditorium; Nov. 11: 11 a.m., IOP Auditorium and 2 p.m. 2 West Amphitheater; Nov 12: 11 a.m., 2 West Amphitheater

Wins

• Sally Potts, R.N., director of professional and therapeutic services, read a letter, written by a patient with Cystic Fibrosis, addressed to MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., praising the staff in respiratory therapy. The patient experienced complications with her disease and was admitted to MUSC for care. She praised the Adult Cystic Fibrosis team led by Patrick Flume, M.D.  Respiratory therapy is essential for patients living with this disease and MUSC has a top notch group wrote the patient. MUSC has exceeded my expectations and to all those who come to work each day and give their best each day, I commend you, she wrote.
• Sharon DeGrace, R.N., Surgery, Medicine and Acute Critical Care service line administrator, read a letter from a heart patient who received care at MUSC’s Chest Pain Center (CPC). The patient thanked center staff including physicians, nurses, technicians and a medical student. The patient was grateful for the treatment they  received as well as a great professional team MUSC. According to DeGrace, CPC has consistently scored in the 99 percentile for the last few quarters. She recognized nurse manager Sandy Gould and CPC staff.

eShift Kickoff
Pam Marek, Decision Support Department manager, introduced AMSoft and eShift.

Sally Potts, R.N., project sponsor and Carol Brown, project coordinator and Brandi Bobbitt and Mark Yeager with McKesson implementation consultants. eShift is a program that works as an electronic bulletin board for open shift management. This tool allows employees to access calendars and other tools using the Internet. The team will be busy building the system, training of managers and preparation before going live mid-November.

Employee of the Month – September
Carline Waiters, a 7W housekeeper, was recognized for her attentiveness dedication and friendliness with staff, patients and their families. Patients and staff love her and her smile and cheery attitude are consistent every day. She attributes her positiveness as an opportunity for paying it forward to others. According to her supervisor, she is a living reminder of MUSC Excellence through her support to patients and families (by Kelcy Dexter).

SCTR Biorepository Education
John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D., Division of Nephrology, shared details about MUSC’s Biomedical Research Bank. The bank, established under the South Carolina Translational Research Institute (SCTR), will help collect clinical samples -- blood, urine, other fluids and tissues -- that would otherwise be thrown away. Samples will be used by scientists to help study, diagnose and treat medical diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. These samples will be labeled in a way that the patient’s identity will not be known. This practice is being conducted in similar institutions and programs such as the Vanderbilt BioVu Repository, Partners Healthcare (Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital) Biorepository, etc. At MUSC, a pilot project has begun and over 1,000 samples have been collected from 250 patients at the CTRC and MICU. The pilot project is preliminary to a larger effort which will allow patients to decide not to contribute their samples at the time they are admitted to the hospital. To help patients and the public understand the ethical issues, including genetic research, surrounding donated blood and tissue for research, an MUSC ethics committee was consulted and an emphasis on donor education was recommended. A video is planned to be broadcast on the GetWell Network as well as other advertising and promotion. For information, visit https://sctr.musc.edu/.

HR update
Helena Bastian, MUHA HR director, presented the following topics:

• New leader orientation – Orientation has been redesigned as one of the MUSC Excellence Global Initiatives; June Darby and Betts Ellis are sponsors of this initiative, which was implemented in August; New leader orientation is required of individuals in their MUHA leadership role; Orientation program provides employees with necessary tools and knowledge to enhance their ability in their leadership capacity; training is conducted in three sessions – 30, 60 and 90 days; employees in leadership roles should complete training within six months of hire

• New leader orientation (con’t) -- supervisor’s responsibility: be prepared for new employees; assign a mentor/preceptor to provide guidance and a resource for new leaders; ensure employee registers and attends orientation sessions and training; ensure new leader orientation checklist is completed (given at session 1) and submitted in personnel file; New leader’s responsibility – attend orientation sessions and training and complete new leader orientation checklist

• HR Policy 32 – Visitor and Career Exploration Programs: MUHA recognizes the value of visitors and developing future health care workers. The program includes faculty/tour, job shadowing, observing, mentoring, clinical sponsorship and visiting practitioner. For information, contact Tish Hyland at hyland@musc.edu

• HR Policy 31 – Affiliation Agreement: An agreement is between MUHA (hereinafter the authority) and any agency for the purpose of placing students for rotations/internships within the authority; the policy outlines the procedure and requirements of any agency affiliating with the authority.

• Mammogram screenings -- Any employee who schedules a mammogram at any of MUSC’s screening locations throughout October will be entered into a weekly drawing for a bag of goodies. Winners will be announced on Fridays beginning Oct. 8. An employees and co-worker also can register for a “buddy” appointment for mammograms at all locations. Call 792-8439 and indicate “buddy” appointment. Visit http://www.muschealth.com/cancer/breastcancer/mammogram.htm

• Yvonne Martin, R.N. nurse retention and community outreach coordinator reminded employees of the S.C. Nurses Foundation Second Annual Nurses Care Walk, 9 a.m. on Nov. 6 in Wannamaker Park. registraion is free and onsite. Donations are welcome. Anyone donating $25 or more will receive a T-shirt.

• The next meeting will be Nov. 2.

Friday, Oct. 22, 2010