People – Fostering employee pride and loyalty

HR update
Helena Bastian, MUHA HR director, presented the following information:
--Pay increase: Effective Aug. 26, eligible employees (those who occupy a permanent position) will receive a .5 percent increase; this is a one-time increase and is not related to an employee's performance rating(s); increase(s) will be reflected in the Sept. 19 paycheck.

--SuccessFactors: 2013 planning forms are due no later than Sept. 30.

--2012 Service Awards Ceremony: MUHA's ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Drug Discovery Building; official invitations were delivered to administrators on Aug. 31 and should be distributed to managers for distribution to employees who will be recognized.

--New Hire Reception: This quarter's reception will be held from 1 — 2 p.m., Sept. 13 at Ashley River Tower Mezzanine and recognizes those employees hired April through June who are celebrating their first 90 days of employment with MUHA

Benefit of the Month
Dependent care flexible spending account (FSA): Benefit authorizes employees to use pre-tax dollars for their dependents (children or elderly family member), age 13 and younger to cover expenses and services from January through December. Qualified dependent care expenses include day care, after school care, adult day care, summer camp, etc. Employees are encouraged to estimate their expenses carefully because they will lose money that is remaining in the account at the end of the plan year.

Wellness update
Suzan Whelan, Office of Health Promotion and Employee Wellness coordinator, reviewed details of this season's 2012 influenza vaccine. Vaccines will be available for MUHA, MUSC, UMA, Crothall, Sodexo employees and volunteers.
Campuswide satellite offices and events will be hosted by Employee Health Services and Infection Control. Employees must bring their ID badge (agency and other non-MUSC paid employees are not eligible). Participants may complete the Flu Vaccine Consent form (http://mcintranet.musc.edu/ehs/) before arrival and bring for entry in the Express Line.

Flu tent schedule: Library portico: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 19 and Sept. 20; and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 19, Ashley River Tower portico: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 19.

Employees may get a flu vaccine at Employee Health Services from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., weekdays with faster service from 1 to 3 p.m.

Clinical managers can administer the flu vaccine to their employees by completing the flu vaccine request form and fax to 792-1200. Influenza vaccination declaration form, Medical Center Policy C-166 will be available online

Quality – Providing quality patient care in a safe environment

Annette Drachman, J.D., MUSC general counsel, reviewed details of MUHA's contracts policy. She confirmed that her office had conducted a modified improvement project to improve services and assist with contracts. A result from this is the new Medical Center Policy A-013 that addresses negotiation and drafting of contracts.

Drachman emphasized the need for managers to exercise due diligence to ensure that agreements meet MUHA's needs, have been budgeted for and properly approved, and implemented, managed, monitored and executed according to the terms of the contract for department level contracts. The new policy reviews negotiation and drafting, routing and signature authority, details with clinical services contracts and record retention. She also clarified the role of a business associate relationship and protected health information.

Drachman also reviewed a new form that assist a department to determine if a business associate relationship exists.

The general counsel's office is available to review contracts by request. The office reviews more than 1,000 contracts annually. Each contract takes an average of eight days to complete. To submit MUHA contracts for legal review, contact muhalegalcontracts@musc.edu.

Service – Serving the public with compassion, respect and excellence

Melissa Forinash, formerly with OCIO and the new Epic program administrator, provided an update on the Epic Enterprise implementation plans. The Epic Ambulatory Care module was implemented on May 17.

In April, MUSC gained permission to purchase the license fees for the Epic Enterprise Solution which is a comprehensive suite of fully integrated products including full revenue cycle and clinical information systems. Epic Enterprise will help integrate different systems and align the organization as the hospital moves forward with the MUSC Health Strategic Plan.

Epic started in 1979 as an ambulatory information system vendor. They have evolved into the vendor of choice for many academic medical centers and have more than 250 customers nationwide. It's estimated that more than 40 percent of U.S. health care consumers have an EMR utilizing Epic software.

Currently Epic Ambulatory EMR is available in 80 clinics with 5,000 users and more than 6,500 registered patients using the MUSC MyChart patient portal.

There are ambulatory projects including ongoing optimization and training for ambulatory clinics and preparing for Stage 1 meaningful use. Implementation of a referring physician module called EpicCare Link and a software version upgrade are also planned to begin this fall. Other future projects include the Kaleidoscope Ophthalmology module scheduled for next summer and the Phoenix transplant module which will coincide with rollout of Epic Enterprise in 2014.

By 2014, nine existing systems will be replaced by modules within Epic Enterprise, such as clinical documentation orders, Pharmacy, Perioperative, Radiology, and Revenue Cycle (registration, scheduling, and billing). Other modules include ASAP (ED), Beacon (Oncology), Care Everywhere (connection with all Epic institutions) and Clarity (reporting and analytics).

Several other modules have been licensed but will not be included with initial rollout in July 2014. Forinash also confirmed that some systems will not be replaced, such as our current imaging systems and some other niche information systems serving unique departmental needs.

The formal project kickoff period is set for Sept. 18-21 with site visits by Epic personnel. An official kick-off meeting will take place from 1:30 to 3 p.m., Sept. 19 in Baruch Auditorium.

User validation sessions to review the model system will take place from mid-October through the end of November. Planners will rely on a broad group of key users to assess functionality and project scope using a traffic light system (green-good; yellow-may need some customization; red-will not work). The validation sessions are essential to ensure that departmental users have input in assessing and designing the system to meet our requirements.

Announcement
The next Communications meeting is Sept. 18.