Quarterly 'I am an MUSC Innovator' award winners recognized

The MUSC Office of Innovation has announced two separate teams as this quarter’s recipients of the "I am an MUSC Innovator" awards. Sponsored by the Office of Innovation, the "I am an MUSC Innovator" campaign is designed to raise awareness of the many forms that innovation can take in an effort to inspire others and to recognize individuals or teams publicly that are making impacts.

The office has named Ashley Hudson, Lathrum Johnson and Michelle Thompson as recipients for their project “Socializer, Teacher, Evaluator, Mentor (STEM) Preceptorship.” The project was presented at the Florence / Marion Shark Tank in 2022.

The office has also named Keia Hewitt, M.D.; Camille Filoromo, Ph.D., R.N.; Scott Broome; Portia Brown; Kelly Cauthen; Patsy Hawkins; Cody Johnson; and Richard Warrin as recipients for their project “Enhancing Throughput by Creating a Behavioral Health Crisis Team in a Rural Hospital Emergency Department.” The project was presented at the Lancaster / Chester Shark Tank in 2022.

These two teams constitute the first recipients from any MUSC Health Regional Health Network to be recognized for the award.

The first project, Project STEM, tackled a pain point for health care workers at the Florence Medical Center.

“We identified a pain point in critical thinking in bedside emergencies. Our nurses were dealing with difficulties in implementing prepared bedside skills across all disciplines," said Thompson. “The solution to mitigating safety risks related to bedside practice is to purchase a high-fidelity simulation manikin so that we can train our care team members using immersive and procedural simulations in a controlled environment, thus improving bedside practice.”

Currently, the team has purchased “Nursing Anne,” their medical manikin, and are currently receiving facilitator training. Simulation learning will be implemented in the Florence Division this month, beginning with nursing orientation

The award-winning team from Lancaster / Chester tackled a lack of mental health facilities in the Lancaster area and across the state. Currently, there is an increasing number of patients requiring mental health services at their facilities, with still very limited resources to assist in those situations.

“This pain point was leaving many to be held for extended periods of time in an emergency department (ED) while awaiting appropriate placement or safe dispositioning, said Hewitt. “Additionally, these holds remove the availability of beds and prevent the ED from gaining throughput for non-behavioral health patients requiring acute emergent care.”

Their innovative solution was to develop a guide for behavioral health care in EDs that was utilized to develop a mental health crisis team in their ED. That team’s sole responsibility is to conduct thorough and regular screenings and assessments while developing an acute plan of care tailored for the ED setting.

Over time, this team will relieve pressure on the ED and increase throughput of patients.

Each quarter, the "I am an MUSC Innovator" campaign showcases educators, researchers, care team members and service team members enterprise-wide who have been nominated for the impact they have made in the area of innovation.

Nominations are solicited by and submitted to the chief innovation officer and evaluated based on the merits of the innovation, including potential impact and unique factors that contributed to the innovation. Nominations are solicited on a quarterly basis but may be submitted for consideration at any time.

Do you know a person or a team that should be recognized? Fill out and submit this nomination form.

Award criteria

• To be eligible for the I am an MUSC Innovator campaign, the individual or team must be:
• Employed by MUSC or attend MUSC as a student.
• Acknowledged within the organization for the creation of an idea, product or process that can solve a problem or create a new opportunity.
• Recognized as collaborative, respectful, adaptive to change and committed to quality care.