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Performance goals, COVID-19 policy, optimization efforts covered at Oct. 3 Penn State Health town hall meeting

Penn State Health CEO Steve Massini opened the Oct. 3 town hall meeting with employees by illustrating both sides of fiscal year 2023 ― a year of achievements for Penn State Health coupled with challenging economic realities.

Massini and other leaders discussed the year, performance bonuses, organizational goals for 2024, COVID-19 policies and optimization and diversity efforts during the wide-ranging hourlong meeting with staff.

  • Watch the closed-captioned replay of the Oct. 3 town hall. To see the captions:
    • Click on the large play icon in the center of the screen. This will bring up a horizontal menu at the bottom of the screen as the recording begins to play.
    • To the right of the volume control, click the “cc” to turn on the closed-captioning feature.
  • Watch The RITE Stuff and Manager Update in the coming weeks for answers to employee questions during the Oct. 3 town hall.

Fiscal year 2023 boasted milestones and achievements, Massini said. He pointed to St. Joseph Medical Center’s 150th anniversary celebration on Aug. 22, the one-year anniversary celebrations of Lancaster Medical Center and Lancaster Pediatric Center and the successes of Mini-THON events at local high schools in raising money for Four Diamonds. In March, Hershey Medical Center reopened its abdominal transplant program, and the number of referrals is continuing to grow. Massini also introduced Dr. Karen Kim, who started in September as the new dean of Penn State College of Medicine.

Massini noted that while the organization made strides in many areas ― achieving its objectives for quality of care, for example ― it didn’t meet the other three of the four organizational goals.

As a result, he said, Penn State Health employees will not receive an organizational performance bonus for fiscal year 2023.

“It’s not something that we wanted to do, but something we felt we had to do,” Massini said. “Our desire in making those decisions is to make sure we keep the organization as healthy as we can so that we’re here to serve generations to come. That is always our focus.”

David Swift, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, discussed five new Penn State Health organizational goals for fiscal year 2024. For more on organizational goals, click here.

Optimization efforts bearing fruit

Kyle Snyder, interim president of Holy Spirit and Hampden medical centers, discussed efforts to optimize radiology scheduling.

Like other departments, radiology had been losing patients to other systems. Many of those patients chose to leave rather than endure long wait times for appointments, Snyder said.

To save patients’ time, a team of leaders and experts developed a tool that standardizes scheduling. It allows schedulers to book appointments in all regions and provides real-time information about technology at each Penn State Health location to match patient needs.

The tool, Snyder said, brought in additional net revenue and filled significantly more imaging slots. Read more about the project here.

Optimization efforts like the improvements to radiology scheduling are underway across the system, said Deborah Addo, Penn State Health’s president and chief operating officer. “The COOs (across the system) have taken responsibility for many of our platforms,” she said. “So, it’s not just at Hershey Medical Center and not just at St. Joseph Medical Center, but all of these leaders are responsible for the coordination of this work across the entire enterprise.”

COVID cases move to yellow alert

Prompted by the recent increase in cases of COVID-19, the health system is reevaluating its masking, quarantine and isolation and gathering policies, Massini said.

Penn State Health is operating at the yellow COVID Alert level, which prompts a change in policy when 10% or more of tests for the illness have registered as positive during the past two or three weeks. As a result, Penn State Health now recommends that staff wear surgical masks within six feet of patients while in direct patient care. Wearing masks becomes a requirement for employees if the health system moves to the orange COVID Alert level, which means the number of positive cases has risen to 20%.

Also under the guidelines of the yellow alert level: masking is recommended during indoor gatherings of 30 or more attendees that last 30 minutes or more. Hand hygiene should be readily available, and a virtual option is recommended for employees who wish to attend remotely.

Iovino reminded employees of the new COVID vaccine, which received Food and Drug Administration approval in September and is publicly available and covered by most insurance policies. Read more about the vaccine here.

Employees should monitor their own health, report positive COVID test results and follow all quarantine and isolation policies.

Look for the latest COVID updates in The RITE Stuff, the Manager Update and on the Infonet.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – moving from awareness to action

Lynette Chappell-Williams, Penn State Health’s vice president and chief diversity officer, noted progress in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout the health system.

She pointed to education opportunities about unconscious biases and creating “what I call an infrastructure for a respectful environment both from a patient and employee perspective.”

During fiscal year 2024, the health system will shift from awareness to “action-oriented efforts,” Chappell-Williams said.

The heath system will continue to focus on diversity in recruitment and retention to build a best-in-class work environment. Accountability will be key to accomplishing Penn State Health’s diversity goals, she said.

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