To Medical Center Employees

At the Sept. 4 communications meeting Melissa Forinash, Epic program administrator, updated the management team on the progress being made with Epic Enterprise (electronic medical record system) implementation. This broad-based initiative involves integration of MUSC's outpatient, practice-based and inpatient clinical systems into one enterprisewide electronic medical record. Additional details are outlined in this newsletter.

One of the seven driving strategies of the MUSC Health Strategic Plan is to intensify investment in state-of-the-art information and communication systems that leverage MUSC's expertise and access. Epic implementation is one of the key components of this strategy.

On another matter, we will have an unannounced comprehensive survey by the Joint Commission between now and the end of October. The survey team will consist of a nurse, physician, administrator, and generalist surveyor for five days, and an additional ambulatory and behavioral health surveyor for two days each. A life safety specialist will be on campus that week for four days of the survey. Surveyors will be evaluating the quality and safety of patient care. Please be prepared to demonstrate to the Joint Commission the quality care we provide our patients.

The survey process will include individual patient tracers and system tracers. System tracers will involve evaluating our infection control practices, medication equipment processes, environment of care procedures, and our how we use data to drive improvement. Surveyors will conduct interviews with staff and patients, review patient records and assess our facilities. In addition, they will review human resources and physician credentialing records. Updates will be issued throughout the survey process via emails and pages.

Finally, at the communications meeting an update was given concerning the medical center's 2012 Influenza Vaccine plan. Our Influenza Vaccination policy (see https://www.musc.edu/medcenter/policy/Med/C166.pdf) has been in place for three years and has been highly successful. Vaccination policies of this nature are recommended by the Joint Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Carolina Hospital Association and other organizations.

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

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 1/2 (.5) percent increase
• This is a one-time increase and is not related to an employee's performance rating(s).
• Increase(s) will be reflective in the Sept. 19 paycheck

SuccessFactors -- 2013 planning forms are due Sept. 30.

2012 Service Awards Ceremony
• MUHA's ceremony will be held on Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. in the Drug Discovery Building.
• Official invitations were delivered to administrators on Aug. 31 and should distributed to managers for distribution to employees who will be recognized
New Hire Reception
• This quarter's reception will be held on Sept. 13 from 1-2 p.m. at ART Mezzanine
• Recognizes those employees hired April through June, 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 daycare, 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 with this season's 2012 influenza vaccine. Vaccines will be available for MUHA, MUSC, UMA, Crothall Sodexho 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 with you for entry in the Express Line. Visit the CDC's 2012 Vaccine information statement (flu vaccine).

Flu tent schedule

• Library portico -- 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 19 and Sept. 20; and 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 1-3 p.m.
• Managers can administer the flu vaccine to their employees by completing the flu vaccine request form and fax, 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 with MUHA’s contracts policy. She confirmed that her office conducted a modified improvement project to improve services and assist with contracts. A result from this is the new Medical Center Policy A-013 to negotiate and draft contracts. She emphasized the need for managers exercise due diligence to ensure that an agreement meets MUHA’s needs, have been budgeted for and properly approved, and are implemented, managed, monitored and executed according to the terms of the contract. at the 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. She reviewed a new form assist in determining if a business associate relationship exists. The general counsel's office is available to review contracts by request.. Please note that 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 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 MUSC's 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. healthcare consumers have an EMR utilizing Epic software.

Currently Epic Ambulatory EMR is available in 80 clinics with 5,000 live users and over 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 to 2012 are also planned to begin this fall.  Other future projects include the Kaleidoscope Opththalmology module scheduled for next summer and the Phoenix transplant module which will coincide with rollout of Epic Enterprise in July 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 Sept. 19 from 1:30 to 3 p.m., 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 meeting is Sept. 18.