To Medical Center Employees

MUSC Excellence is about aligning our operational practices and behaviors with our values and goals. It involves a framework that includes our service excellence teams, pillar-based goals, leadership development and our fiscal year action plan.

The action plan is updated each year and is crafted based upon an assessment of progress and identification of opportunities for improvement. The MUSC Excellence steering team typically identifies 20 or more action plan topics, which range in scope and complexity, such as on-boarding of new leaders, improved use of patient satisfaction data, first impressions training, patient transportation needs, bedside shift report, discharge process, discharge phone calls, AIDET education and other topics.

At the Feb. 21 communications meeting John Sanders, Children's Services Service Line administrator, explained plans have been made for all medical center (MUHA) employees to have an AIDET refresher. AIDET is a simple but effective best practice that involves "key words at key times." Sanders stated that he will be joined by Bill Spring, Service Line administrator, Heart & Vascular Center, Nancy Tassin, Musculoskeletal Service Line administrator, June Darby, Neuroscience Service Line administrator, and Joan Herbert, Organizational Performance director, in conducting training during staff meetings and other settings across the organization. The plan is to expose all employees to AIDET refresher training with the goal of improving patients' experience.

AIDET is an acronym for Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation and Thank You. AIDET improves patients' experience, reinforces coordination of care, and decreases patient anxiety and concern. AIDET is applicable to both clinical and non-clinical settings.

On another matter, last week Dr. Pat Cawley, executive medical director, MUSC medical center, explained in a mass email that we have had a quiet season for influenza and this led to deferment of mask wearing requirement for those who did not receive the vaccine. Due to positive results of recent influenza tests, we initiated the mask wearing requirement effective Feb. 20. Currently the stop date is March 31. We will continue to monitor influenza activity and any changes to the stop date will be communicated.

I want to thank everyone who attended the town hall sessions. Approximately 1,630 employees attended. We improved attendance by aligning town hall sessions with a number of large department-based meetings and we will continue this practice. A Tegrity recording of the presentation is posted at http://mcintranet.musc.edu/muscexcellence/Employee%20Engagement/townhall/townhallindex.htm.

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

People–Fostering employee pride and loyalty

Lee Moody of Stryker Sustainability Solutions, presented the medical center with the 2011 Health Hospital Gold Award for outstanding performance in reducing environmental harm and improving overall hospital quality for medical device re-manufacturing and reprocessing. MUSC achieved an overall savings of $1,038,323 and a reduction of 10,290 lbs. diverted from waste landfills. This is the third year MUSC has received this award from Stryker.

HR update

• CATTS – Due date for CATTS mandatory lessons will correspond with the universal review period, July 1 – June 30; mandatory lessons have been assigned and are due June 30.
  
• Certification incentive – Approved certification list has been updated; $750 (initial); up to $500 (re-certification); Registration exam fee may be paid in advance; incentive will be paid upon successful completion of certification (total reduced by amount paid in advance); in the event fees are paid in advance and employee does not pass certification, he/she will be responsible for the cost to retake the exam.
• Primary Source Verification – Renewals will be conducted by HR for RN's only at this time. All others should continue to conduct primary source verifications until further notices. Nurses with S.C. licenses must renew their license prior to the expiration date of April 30. Contact Michelle Foreman, 792-6219 or foremanm@musc.edu.
• SuccessFactors – The business phone number from the phone directory is available in SuccessFactors. Employees can view this in the employee directory or on the employee files page.
• HR team meetings – HR representatives will schedule quarterly meetings to increase employee communications; meetings will feature Q&As, benefits counseling appointments and help with other Human Resources related needs.

Benefit for the Month
Starting March 1, MUSC will be a tobacco-free campus. To help with this transition, the organization created the MUSC Pitch the Pack program, a tobacco cessation program available to MUSC employees and students free of charge through June. It offers classes, counseling and medications to help individuals kick the habit. Enroll at http://www.musc.edu/medcenter/health1st.

AIDET refresher
John Sanders, Children's Services Service Line administrator, spoke about plans to roll out AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explain, Thanks) refresher training for all medical center employees. AIDET is a framework of interactions, introduced by MUSC Excellence that employees use to communicate with patients, visitors and coworkers. Sanders identified a team of five trainers who are available to lead AIDET training at department or unit meetings. Managers may contact any of these trainers to set up training.

Service Excellence team
Ali McAbee, Excellence Rewards and Recognition (R&R) team leader, gave an update. The R&R team coordinates details with employee and physician of the month, employee of the year, manages and distributes online and hard copy applause cards, I got caught stickers and star cards for employee recognition. The group is recruiting for team members. Visit https://www.musc.edu/medcenter/new_musc2/reward.html.

Service – Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence
Lois Kerr, accreditation manager, gave an update about the upcoming triennial Joint Commission survey. Kerr reviewed new details including patient-centered communication standards, radiation safety, CMS discharge planning, and other news. She also spoke about high reliability which focuses on maintaining consistent excellence over time with a goal of zero quality failures and a culture of safety empathizing trust. For improvements, leaders are changing audit tools to reflect new findings, review validation methods, re-introduce Safety Wednesdays, and other plans. Immediate next steps include weekly audits for managers and individualizing the Safety Wednesday tool for non-inpatient units.

Finance – Providing the highest value to patients while ensuring financial stability
Steve Hargett, medical center controller, presented the hospital's financial results for the seven month period ending January Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 and FY 2011. The hospital reported net assets of $12.7 million ($2.4 million under budget). Hargett reported that the budget variance is due mainly to a difficult October but the spring months are usually the busiest and should get MUSC back to budget. Volume adjusted indicators showed that supply costs and labor costs were down. Payments from commercial payers were delayed due to changes in the national conversion system and clearinghouse claims format. Cash on hand is at $47 million compared to $14.4 million in January 2011.