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Schneider Regional Hits the Campaign Trail to Elevate Patient Care

May 14, 2008 — An eight-week media campaign hits the local radio and television airwaves Thursday as the Schneider Regional Medical Center (SRMC) ramps up efforts to try to position itself as a world leader in delivering health care.
The campaign, "It Takes All of Us!," was unveiled Wednesday by SRMC President and CEO Amos W. Carty Jr. as a way to elevate patient-care standards by stressing to employees that their jobs, regardless of function, are important.
SRMC encompasses the Roy Lester Schneider Hospital and the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Center (CKCI) on St. Thomas and the Myrah Keating Smith Community Center on St. John.
"We are confident that in the end, the better we feel about what we do and the more we take seriously the responsibility of our patients and our community, the more the patients and our community will rely upon us for their medical needs," Carty said, adding that his goal for the medical center is "… to become a world-class health-care facility."
Carty's comments were made before a packed audience of medical center staff and news media in the Bennie and Martha Benjamin Medical Auditorium of the CKCI. Presentation of the new campaign was stalled by malfunctioning audio-visual equipment, prompting a slight shift in the program until new equipment could be rolled in and the radio and television ads played. They eventually concluded to enthusiastic applause.
The advertisements feature employees from different departments expressing pride in what they do and relating it to patient care. In addition, the campaign features banners, buttons and a new booklet for patients that helps decipher the SRMC's services and departments. The total cost is approximately $10,000, Carty said, including all radio and television production and airtime on outlets including Radio One and local affiliates of National Public Radio, Fox TV, NBC and CBS. Additional airtime may be secured on CNN and TV2, according to Sam Topp, the center's spokesman.
The new campaign dovetails with one implemented a year ago called "Satisfying Others by Changing Our Actions and Attitudes," or SOCAA. The SOCAA campaign is groundbreaking, according to Russell Massaro, a physician and former vice president of the Joint Commission, the accrediting agency for hospitals nationwide. Massaro has served as a consultant on the campaign from its inception.
"The majority of hospitals have not taken a comprehensive, soul-searching, deep review of the departments, disciplines and technologies that must come together in today's health-care environment in order to serve the patient in a satisfying … manner," Massaro told the audience. "The SOCAA project is representative of a fundamental change in the way this hospital seeks to deliver its services. It's not frosting on an old cake; we're actually baking a new, significantly different cake."
Carty challenged the audience to recall the hospital of days gone by.
"'No Pillows in the Hospital,' 'No Blankets in the Hospital,' 'No Soap in the Hospital' — when was the last time you saw those headlines?" he challenged the audience. "You don't see them anymore because we have the system in place that lets us address issues."
From the audience, a voice piped up, "We still have a problem with hot water."
Old plumbing required the medical center to special order parts, Carty explained, which he hopes will resolve the apparent hot-water shortage.
"We've gone from cold to warm," he said good-naturedly, drawing applause from the audience.
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