Employee Initiatives Grant Recipients

2019 Recipients

Project: Ozzie’s Project

Department: 7East Acute Care | Awarded: $2,500

Ozzie’s Project is designed to provide pediatric patients with toys, games, educational materials, and other resources to alleviate stress generated by physical isolation during hospitalization.

Project: CARES Clinic Vaccination Program

Department: Family Medicine | Awarded: $2,500

The student-run CARES Clinic currently offers vaccines for influenza, pneumococcal, and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) to disadvantaged patients, free of charge. These vaccines currently cost us roughly 20% of our total operating budget, but with your support, those savings will be put towards new programs to further provide essential services to those in need.

Project: Rides and Resources for Recovery

Department: Institute of Psychiatry |  Awarded: $2,487.78

Rides and Resources for Recovery (RRR) helps the Institute of Psychiatry provide indigent and homeless patients with excellence in patient care that extends beyond their hospitalization. Gifts to this program will allow RRR to supply local bus passes and pill organizers to our indigent and homeless patients upon discharge.  

Project: (BMT) Pediatric Bone Marrow Psychosocial Program

Department: Child Life/Hematology/Oncology | Awarded: $2,500

This grant enables the child life and the pediatric oncology teams to provide more comprehensive care to children and families, addressing the full spectrum of emotional, social, cognitive, and physical needs. Specifically, gifts to this program enable us to purchase therapeutic and educational materials for our bone marrow transplant patients to enjoy during their hospitalization.

Project: Pediatric Family Meal Coupons

Department: Patient and Family Centered Care | Awarded: $2,500

Often, family members of patients at MUSC Children’s Hospital do not have a means to purchase meals for themselves during their child’s hospitalization. Gifts to this program allow us to purchase and distribute food coupons for families of children in units located throughout the hospital.

Project: Can-Teen Support Group

Department: Pediatric Hematology/Oncology | Awarded: $2,500

Can-Teen is a support group at MUSC Children’s Hospital for teenagers with cancer. The group provides coping support for teens by providing opportunities for building positive relationships with one another. Can-Teen members participate in projects, meetings, and retreats, which are specifically designed to facilitate communication, therapeutic expression of thoughts and feelings, and a sense of community within an intimidating medical world. Grant support from the YES Family Fund allows Can-Teen to have local retreats covering the cost of food, therapeutic activities and materials, including those for creating scrapbooks, photo albums, and videos of memories for Can-Teen.

Project: Comfort kits for families

Department: Volunteer Services | Awarded: $2,500

The Comfort Kit program has been in existence for more than 13 years at the MUSC Children’s Hospital. The comfort kits are a valuable resource for families who are arriving emergently without any belongings, as well as for those who are in the hospital for an extended stay. The kits are comprised of personal necessities, such as shampoo/conditioner/lotion, toothbrush/toothpaste, comb, pen/paper, soap, and an emery board.

Project: MUSC Advocacy Program (MAP)

Department: Case Management and Care Transition | Awarded: $2,500

The mission of the MUSC Advocacy Program is to provide service to all patients who are experiencing abuse, neglect, and/or intimate partner violence. In most cases of intimate partner violence, the survivor loses access to their phone; it is either taken by the perpetrator, destroyed, or no longer safe to use. For that reason, MAP Social Workers aim to provide new phones to survivors who enter the hospital with this need. The funds from this grant will allow the program to purchase calling cards for new phones with data, talk, and text capabilities.

Project: Providing take home naloxone nasal spray to high-risk patients

Department: Pharmacy Services  | Awarded: $2,500

In an effort to combat the opioid overdose epidemic, South Carolina has taken legal initiative to increase patient access to take-home naloxone as a harm reduction strategy. Until now, there was no readily available source of funding for naloxone nasal spray to patients in the Charleston-area. This year’s grant will allow approximately 38 additional at-risk patients or caregivers to receive a kit they likely would not otherwise have access to because of a lack of insurance.

Project: STAR Edible Yarden

Department: Grounds | Awarded: $2,450

The STAR (stabilization, treatment, assessment, reintegration) Edible Yarden is a collection of raised vegetables, fruit, and flower beds used for interactive and educational horticultural therapy at STAR Day Treatment Program. The Yarden provides demonstrations of healthy available fruits and vegetables while inspiring STAR program participants to eat healthy. With a growing number of patients, projects, and interest, the Yarden needs to expand its growing area and programming to better suit the needs of its patient populations. Two additional boxes will be built, providing more opportunities to work in the garden and an influx of healthy produce for patients to consume.

Project: Legacy Work

Department: Palliative Care | Awarded: $2,500

Legacy Work is a practice of providing memory making and transitional objects to those losing a loved one or to patients and families coping with prolonged hospitalizations. At end of life, it both honors individuals and aids in healthy bereavement by creating an enduring, tangible connection. Grant funds will allow kits to be purchased, created, and distributed by the Palliative Care team.

Project: Safe sleep for all through education

Department: NICU | Awarded: $2,500

In South Carolina more than one baby a week dies from an unsafe sleep environment. The Safe Sleep Task Force at MUSC plans to address this issue by providing “Sleep Baby, Safe and Snug” board books for parents and caregivers who have completed the infant CPR class. These books reinforce the importance of safe sleep positioning in a gentle, rhythmic way and could potentially prevent sleep-related deaths. 

Project: Tablets for diabetes technology

Department: Mt. Pleasant After Hours Care and Specialty | Awarded: $1,177.98

Patients of the Mt. Pleasant Pediatric Endocrinology clinic rely upon their diabetes technology to manage their disease. Investing in Microsoft Surface tablets and related accessories will provide fast downloads of information from insulin pumps and glucometers. This process would eliminate untethering of pumps, promote increased safety by reducing the risk of accidental exposures of needle sticks and mislabeling of devices, and promote comprehensive care.

Project: Pediatric Emergency Department waiting room entertainment

Department: Child Life | Awarded: $2,500

The Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) at MUSC Children’s Hospital is a Level 1 trauma center serving approximately 25,000 children of various ages and diagnoses annually. As a part of the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, the waiting room will be equipped with Touch2Play video systems, created for use in a hospital setting. The games are age-appropriate, well-liked by children that use them and the systems are secure, durable, and easy to clean.

Project: Aromatherapy for dementia

Department: Institute of Psychiatry - Senior Care Unit | Awarded: $267.18

The Senior Care Unit (SCU) population on 4 North is primarily the elderly with a mix of different physical, mental, and cognitive deficits and abilities. To provide a holistic approach of a calm and healing environment, it is our goal to have SCU patients require less medication and promote healing. Aromatherapy research study results have shown to improve mood among the participants.

Project: Home blood pressure monitoring

Department: Neuroscience, Stroke Clinic | Awarded: $2,500

The MUSC Stroke Clinic, part of the MUSC Comprehensive Stroke Program, is dedicated to improving stroke recovery, rehabilitation, and stroke prevention for patients and families. Stroke is a leading cause of death in the state. Gifting patients with home blood pressure monitors demonstrates MUSC’s commitment to supporting self-care and risk prevention in those we treat.

Project: Make Our Seniors Happy

Department: Institute of Psychiatry - Senior Care Unit | Awarded: $1,700

Make Our Seniors Happy is designed to provide patients in the Senior Care Unit with sensory items: gel maze, comfort companion dolls, and water pictures that can be utilized throughout the day and evening.

Project: Patient comfort post intracranial lead implantation for seizure monitoring

Department: Neurology | Awarded: $292.90

MUSC’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center offers the latest digital monitoring and video capabilities to quickly and efficiently develop a definitive diagnosis for patients who do not respond to first line therapies. The purchase of neck pillows with intracranial monitoring will make this process more comfortable.

Project: Nursery play and development

Department: Physical Therapy | Awarded: $750

Some babies spend less than a week or month in the hospital preparing to be discharged home in the care of their families, but many babies, due to medical/feeding complications, can remain in the hospital for up to a year or more. These infants are almost always not stable enough or permitted to be taken out of these units to go to the atrium, outside, or for walks with caregivers; therefore, care and development needs to come to these babies. PVC pipe “gyms” will be built to fit the standard nursery cribs, with links and rattles to engage babies in gross motor, fine motor, tactile, spatial awareness, and vision development.

Project: Promoting rest and quality sleep

Department: 7B Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorder | Awarded: $500

To make the 7B unit more conducive to sleep for patients and families, 18 sound machines will be installed in each patient room. The sound machines will create white noise that may mask some of the external sounds and promote rest and quality sleep.

Project: IOP treating patients using games and activities

Department: Institute of Psychiatry - 2 North Nursing | Awarded: $1,600

Children and adolescents often have difficulty expressing their feelings, managing their emotions, and participating in traditional therapeutic groups. The grant will be used to identify specific games and activities that target a variety of issues faced by patients, such as bullying, emotion dysregulation, anxiety, anger, and aggression.

Project: Wrist pedometers to improve motivation and assessment of ambulation in adult med/surg patients

Department: Safe Patient Handling and Mobility and Rehab | Awarded: $2,396.89

Immobility in a hospital can lead to loss of muscle mass, decline in function, and significantly diminish the quality of life for individuals and their caregivers leading to a variety of in-hospital complications. The YES grant will provide the funds to purchase wristband pedometers to use for patients on two nursing units. The pedometers will help measure the patient’s ambulation while in the hospital.

Project: Comfort care kits

Department: Guest Services | Awarded: $1,000

Patients and families are faced with urgent, and often unplanned, admissions to the hospital. Thanks to support from the YES Family Fund, guest services is able to provide comfort kits for families to use during their overnight stay. Kits include toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and conditioner.

Project: Walkers for mobility

Department: Physical Therapy | Awarded: $2,198.88

This project will improve the walker-to-patient ratio to approximately one walker for every four patients. With more available walkers at the bedside, the health care team can easily and safely mobilize appropriate patients, thus improving and maximizing the patient’s quality of life. 

Project: Optimizing the comfort and success of breastfeeding mothers of premature and medically-complex infants

Department: Women’s and Children’s Services Lactation | Awarded: $2,474.33

Supporting breastfeeding in mothers of premature and medically complex infants is a high priority at MUSC, as well as nationally and internationally. Pumping at the bedside is encouraged to enhance maternal let-down of breast milk and can improve milk supply. Gifts to this program will allow for professional breastfeeding pillows and stools to be purchased to improve patient outcomes.