Survey deadline fast approaching
I want to thank each of you who have taken the time to complete our very first systemwide caregiver engagement survey! Your feedback is greatly appreciated and will go a long way to helping us understand how we can make UMass Memorial Health Care the best place to give care and the best place to get care. I am particularly eager to see what themes come from the two open ended items at the end of the survey.

The deadline to complete the survey is next Monday, October 31. If you have not taken the survey, please do. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

The survey is completely anonymous; it is conducted by a third party vendor, Press Ganey, which means your individual responses will not be seen by anyone at UMass Memorial. The organization only receives a summary of the results at the entity, department and team levels.

Based on these results, each entity and local team will develop an action plan to implement positive changes that impact their everyday work. Don’t miss this opportunity to speak up to make change happen!

Setting the example for our patients
The phrase “physician, heal thyself” is not just for caregivers. It is widely used to encourage the person or group hearing it to model a behavior they should be encouraging. We have a great opportunity to do just that. Through an investment in time and technology we have made it easier for our patients to communicate with their providers using the FollowMyHealth (FMH) Patient Portal. It is a great tool with numerous benefits for both patients and providers – but only if it is being used. I am asking each of you who are also UMass Memorial patients to help set an example by enrolling in this portal.

Once you have registered, this portal allows you to view your health information, send secure messages to your provider, request appointments and prescription renewals, update your demographic and insurance information and more. You can watch the video below for more details on the services offered through the portal.

Start the process by telling a member of your care team that you would like to register for the FMH Patient Portal. Our caregivers will then send you an email with instructions on how to register. You will receive access to the portal through an email confirming your registration. It’s as easy as that!

Thanks for all of your great ideas and for taking great care of our patients and each other,

Eric