Grand Challenge #1 – Communications Results


Congratulations to the RTAS – Obtaining the Results of Your Pap Test Project Team from Magee-Womens Hospital and the Ortho Spine Post-operative Flight Plan Project Team from UPMC’s Presbyterian Hospital in winning the first PFCC Grand Challenge!

Thank you and congratulations on a job well done to everyone who participated too! All of you are improving UPMC’s patients experiences!

 Jonee Matsko of team RTAS from Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC tastes the sweet success of being co-winner of the first PFCC Grand Challenge Series.


• RTAS – Obtaining the Results of Your Pap Test – Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC
A multi-disciplinary team was defined to implement a patient focused process for the communication of Pap smear results to patients.
• Taking the Extra Step (Service Recovery) – Shadyside Family Health Center Service recovery plan and training for the improvement of patient satisfaction.
• Hillman Hem/Transfusion – Hillman Cancer Center
The team implemented a collaborative approach to improve flow and communication throughout the transfusion process.
• Share the Care – UPMC’s Presbyterian
Unit 9G proposed a two fold project utilizing technology and a patient family advocate to improve communication for the patients and families admitted to Unit 9G.
• Public Relations/Patient Satisfaction – Emergency Department, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside
Our Patient Relations Team recognized the importance of raising awareness to crucial information that patients/families and visitors (PFV) should know when they come to the Shadyside Emergency Department to be treated.
• iCope Team – Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
The iCope Team, composed of Child Life Specialists and a Music Therapist, who have advanced education and experience working with children/adolescents in medical situations, is available to assist a child/adolescent of a caregiver who has experienced a traumatic event.
• Journey to Wellness – UPMC’s Presbyterian
Step-by-step guidebooks with visual cues like icons and photographs were created to enhance the experience of families of same day surgery patients at UPMC Montefiore and UPMC Presbyterian, in order to address the confusion inevitable in a complex hospital setting where most same day surgery patients and their families must cross a pedestrian bridge between hospital buildings.
• BariShare Network – MIS Bariatric Surgery, Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC
The Bari-Share Network will provide information and support to the patient and family members enrolled in the Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC Bariatric Program.
• Operation Birthday – UPMC’s Montefiore
“Operation Birthday” recognizes patient birthdays while producing an atmosphere in which communication is at ease and strengthens the relationship between staff, patients and their families.
• Homecare Upfront, Meeting your Expectations – UPMC Jefferson Regional Home Health
Homecare Upfront, Meeting Your Expectations provides patients with the information for a prepared and coordinated handoff from the hospital to home with homecare.
• Trauma PFCC Website – UPMC’s Presbyterian
This project served to design and implement a website for patients and families about the UPMC Trauma Care program at UPMC Presbyterian.
• University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute – Clinical Research Services
This project involved the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Clinical Trial Participant Wallet Card to improve communication between the patient and his/her healthcare providers that promotes protocol compliance and patient safety.
• Ortho Spine Postoperative Flight Plan – UPMC’s Presbyterian
The Spine Surgery Post Operative Flight Plan’s goal is to get the right patient in the right bed at the right time, every time.
• Just a Phone Call Away – UPMC’s Presbyterian
“Just a Phone Call Away” is a PFCC project to enhance communication on Unit 12D between the patient’s family and health care worker by creating a process where the family can call in for daily updates utilizing 2 potential secure and confidential venues.
• Care for Me – UPMC’s Southside
The “CARE FOR ME” project is designed to follow the Innovation Center’s Mission Statement by concentrating our efforts on changing the picture of how “care” is administered to that very large portion of the hospital and surgery center population whose needs are seldom addressed, namely, our patients’ families and caretakers.
• Educational Binder - Ortho Unit – Magee-Womens Hospital
Our goal is to create an educational binder for bariatric patients to receive approximately 1 week prior to surgery which explains their inpatient stay and discharge.