To Medical Center Employees

Recently the MUSC Children's Hospital was chosen to receive the Excellence in Patient Care award given by the Studer Group. This award is based upon consistent outstanding patient satisfaction results.

The past two years the Children's Hospital and clinics have ranked among the top 5 percent of the 66 children's hospitals that participate in Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey. The most recent results indicate a 99th percentile rank. Congratulations to the Children's Hospital leadership team, physicians and staff for a great job.

At the Nov. 15 management communications meeting, Carla Pascoe, nurse manager, 7E Pediatric Surgery, and Jennifer Wright, nurse manager, 7A Children's Hospital, updated the management team on an array of best practices used to achieve high patient satisfaction results. Among other things, they emphasized the bedside shift report as one of the most powerful tools. Additional details are included in this newsletter.

As previously discussed at the Aug. 2 communications meeting, a DHEC survey conducted in June revealed a number of radiation safety regulation deficiencies. An action plan was put into place to re-educate all concerned individuals on radiation safety requirements and to correct deficiencies. Included in this newsletter are the "Top 10 Steps to Radiation Safety" given to managers for dissemination to all appropriate individuals. We will continue our work to ensure for proper systems of accountability and education of everyone concerned. The full cooperation of everyone is needed as we move forward.

Thank you very much.

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

People–Fostering employee pride and loyalty

Wins

* Adam Kornegay was presented with an MUSC Fire/Life Safety Appreciation award given by Wayne Brannan, University Risk Management director, for extinguishing a fire Oct. 2 in Rutledge Tower.

* Linda Formby, R.N., was presented with the 2011 S.C. Infection Control Practitioner of the Year Award for her leadership in guiding staff to lower hospitalwide infection rates.

HR update
Liz Nista, Transplant Center, and more than a dozen MUSC Angel Tree board members, promoted details about this year's campaign. Established since 2003, MUSC employees have contributed to this annual program with growing generosity. Since Nov. 11, the Angel Tree board have begun to distribute about 1,100 angel gift tags to campuswide departments and off-campus facilities. Last year, MUSC provided more than 2,000 angel tree gifts to support Lowcountry families during the holidays. This year's collection will feature a parade with music provided by the Burke High School band and MUSC Angel Tree participants. Adopt an angel from the display located at the university hospital and ART cafeteria walls. Gifts are due Dec. 9 and will feature a parade event, which will begin at 11:45 a.m. beginning at ART and end at the MUSC Horseshoe. Visit http://www.lowcountryangels.com or http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/angel.html

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

* CATTS lessons - All mandatory CATTS lessons are due Dec. 1. Questions may be directed to Latonia Allen, 792-2805.
* Parking Management, University Transportation and University Mail Services will be closed Nov. 24 and Nov. 25.
* Quarterly new hire reception is scheduled for 1 p.m., Dec. 8, Gazes Auditorium; Event honors employees hired since last quarter (July to September) who have completed 90 days of service. Door prizes will be awarded.
* Education verification for new hires scheduled to start Jan. 2: Schools & offices will be closed from Dec. 18 to Jan. 2; HR will be unable to verify education references at this time; National Student Clearinghouse does not verify high school diplomas and GEDs.
* Holiday shift differentials: Per MUHA HR Policy #15 - Compensation: employees in regular day positions (Monday to Fridays) will not automatically be eligible for holiday shift differential - eligible employees are those required to work on the actual holiday; time keepers must document in Kronos.
* Vacant positions - Vacant, interim positions are required to be posted to ensure fair and non-discriminatory hiring practice; positions that become vacant due to extended absence are to be available to qualified employees within respective department/unit; salary quotes are not to be requested from HR employment or HR compensation\n until position has posted required time frame.

Employee of the Month -- November
* Annie Bass, a 9West PCT and PCT of the Year, was recognized for her dedication, patience and respect to patients and the unit staff. A member of the unit's patient satisfaction team, she contributed lots of ideas to improve patient care. (by Ramona Smith)

* Kathy Kruowski, R.N., 7East Children's Hospital clinical unit leader, was praised for her overall energy, enthusiasm and creativeness in promoting the unit. Her theme of the month parties and other activities to create a positive, friendly work environment were applauded. (by Carla Pascoe)

Patient Family Centered Care update
Maggie Thompson, Patient and Family Centered Care manager, talked about the hospital's current progress in establishing three patient-family partnership councils (Children's Hospital, IOP and Medical Center) within the medical center to improve partnerships and relationships between patients, families and hospital caregivers.

Thompson introduced representatives from two of the councils - Mary Anne Gallagher and Marian Rzepkowski (IOP) and Fred Rothaermel (Medical Center), each spoke about their group's progress. Formed in April, the eight-member IOP Council has already facilitated crisis intervention training and other activities. The newly-formed medical center council hosts nine members and currently giving input to a revised disclosure policy and a new visitation policy. Council members are patients or family members who have had significant and diverse patient care experiences at MUSC. They serve on the council to bring the patient perspective to medical center improvement teams to improve the patient care experience. The group is eager to partner with hospital managers and staff. Each council is supported by a staff liaison, who helps facilitate collaborations with hospital staff, leaders and physicians. Aside from Thompson, MUSC staff liaisons include Torri Jacobsen (IOP) and Sandra Oberman (Children's Hospital). For information, e-mail thompsof@musc.edu.

Quality - Providing quality patient care in a safe environment
HIPAA policy update
Reece Smith, medical center compliance director, reviewed the latest information on maintaining HIPAA privacy and security standards. Smith cautioned managers to be aware of privacy rules and security standards related to phishing, HIPAA privacy audits using FairWarning (a new detection software), social media, faxing and password- protected smart phones (use password protection). She also reminded employees that they are responsible for notifying the compliance offices in the event of a security breach by calling 792-4037 or the OCIO help desk, 792-9700.

Patient transport update
Dave Neff, Ambulatory Care Service Line administrator and Tyler Nance, Ambulatory Care Support Services, shared details from a new task force formed to improve the hospital's patient transport services. Tyler Nance, Ambulatory Care Support Services and Nancy Hendry, Admit Transfer Center manager, co-project directors, described how all internal patient transports will be managed in the University and Children's Hospital, ART, Hollings Cancer Center and Rutledge Tower. The new central patient transport also affects all MUSC patient transport staff (Ambulatory Care, Echo and radiology transporters in University Hospital and ART). Beginning Dec. 6, transporters will wear a purple top and black scrub pants.

All transport requests will be managed online with the requestor receiving an ETA status and escalations with management oversight. Requests also can be made for a morgue attendant and lift team support. Training will take place throughout November with the go-live event scheduled Dec. 6.

According to Neff, the new program is designed to better gauge and manage overall productivity with hospitalwide transports on weekdays. Transport coverage for weekends will continue until Feb. 1. Neff reminded managers to participate in a wheelchair tune-up and surplus event, Nov. 17-18, university hospital, Biomed CH107; ART, Biomed Rm. 2416; RT, info desk, 1st floor lobby; and HCC, transporter desk, 1st floor lobby.

MUSC Service Excellence Team update
Children's Hospital's Carla Pascoe, 7East nurse manager, and Jennifer Wright, 7A nurse manager, shared best practices and initiatives used by their multidisciplinary team to improve patient satisfaction and gains within the past year. Both managers praised the formation of hospitalwide multidisciplinary service teams, which include employees, physicians, and a representative of the Children's Hospital's Council to contribute to conversations and planning. Also organized are unit-specific teams who are responsible for creating action plans that drive the team's success.

According to Pascoe, bedside shift reporting is considered essential for managers to hold staff accountable in this practice. Other improvements include better communications and collaboration with teams and engagement.

So far, the Children's Hospital achieved the 99th percentile in the last reported quarter with 7East has scored 99 percentile for five out of the last six quarters. They received the Studer Group's Excellence in Patient Care award for patient satisfaction.

Announcements
* Keane downtime to support the Keane browser based EZ-Access upgrade to Optimum will begin at 10 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 27. There will be no admits, discharges and transfers conducted during this four-hour period.
* December's Employee Wellness will spotlight health holiday activities at noon, Dec. 2, James E. Clyburn Research Complex Plaza. This year's theme is "Adding local flavor to your holiday celebrations." The event features speakers, gift items to purchase, plus a healthy holiday cooking demonstration by MUSC/Sodexho executive chef Fredrick Bennett.
* The next meeting is Dec. 6.