You Asked For It; We Did It

Good morning.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I hope you can make plans to spend some quality time with family and/or friends next week, which can be a great way to recharge for the dash to the end of the calendar year.

Today, I want to highlight some instances of what I’ll call, “You asked for it; we did it.” While we can’t fulfil every request, I want to ensure that you know that we take your concerns and requests seriously and always consider acting on them, when feasible. The list below certainly isn’t exhaustive but represents operational and facility improvements of which you made us aware.

• Staff who work at Suite G in the Pavilion noted several times that patients who had appointments in Suite H were having trouble finding their way. We looked into this and found that the appointment instructions that patients received told them to go to Suite H, but the signage for that clinic was only branded University Transplant. We installed a Suite H sign to match the ones for the other clinics. This just made sense for patient wayfinding, so I appreciate Suite G staff raising this issue.

Wayfinding, especially for patient care areas, is a topic often brought up by clinical teams and needs to be addressed comprehensively. That’s why we are adding wayfinding improvements to the next 5-year strategic plan that will kick off in July. We need to get this fixed in a coordinated and permanent way.

• We’ve again made the ground floor entrance to the Conerly Critical Care Hospital accessible. This makes it easier for patients to get to outpatient imaging appointments, allowing them to park in Garage B. We heard from several frustrated patients/family members who ended up lost trying to get to their appointment after parking in Garage A and entering through University Hospital.
• Following feedback from new faculty members during onboarding, the Office of Faculty Affairs streamlined the process for the “first day” of employment to essential information only. There is a lot of content that faculty need to know, but hopefully now they won’t feel overwhelmed at the earliest stages of their UMMC career.
• Our students are not shy when it comes to advocating for themselves, and that’s certainly a good thing. We want them to have a positive experience on their way to becoming a health science professional. Here are a couple of areas where we’ve made improvements based on student requests:
  
  • The Nelson Student Union has undergone significant upgrades including enhancing the suite and meeting area for the Associated Student Body, student lounge and study areas. Improvements were made to the equipment in the student fitness center and the gym and water bottle fillers were installed to replace water fountains.
  • The Rowland Medical Library has also recently seen improvements like additional and enhanced study rooms – with more available 24/7. The library has more workstations on the second floor designated for quiet studying only, a device-charging station and cables available for check out when trying to connect to monitors in the study rooms. Also, the library made more content available for studying for licensing and board exams, including more specialties.
• Some hospital care teams were voicing concerns about visitors and others accessing inpatient units outside of established visiting hours. To address this, we’ve made it possible for the doors to inpatient floors to lock at predetermined times, requiring badge access or assistance from unit staff to enter. This is a significant safety improvement during the night shift.
• Other new initiatives in response to health system staff requests include increased availability of interpreter services, recognition for units succeeding in quality improvement measures and Epic tweaks to reduce the time it takes to do certain documentation.
• A lot of facilities improvements have been made recently. Here’s a sampling:
  • We’ve paved many roads around campus including the State Street entrance in front of University Hospital. Additional roadwork will begin on Monday, including stadium roads and lots in collaboration with Jackson State, which owns that land.
  • We’ve added parking spots in the stadium lots and on campus.
  • Through flyover drone surveys and continuous audits by UMMC Police, lighting improvements and repairs have been made at the stadium areas and lots.