This Penn doctor is on a mission to get ER workers to know each others’ names. It’s been harder than you’d think.

Staffers of color at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center were often demoralized because their emergency room colleagues didn’t know their names.

So Hana Choy, an emergency medicine physician, launched an effort to get people to know the names of everyone working the same shift.

Calling her project Know My Name, Choy worked with a tech firm to develop an internal, online staff directory and connect it to a TV screen in the ER. The display made it possible to see the preferred names, photos, and professional roles of the people working during any given shift.

It’s a simple idea. But two years in, Choy is still working through challenges.

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On one of her recent ER shifts, Choy noticed that the screen was not working because of a malfunction. And tech is not the only issue. The system currently requires people to sign in to appear on the screen, and some are reluctant or forget.

The effort to get staff to use each other’s names comes as health care institutions, including Penn Medicine, work to address systemic racism. Know My Name seeks to make the ER a more inclusive workplace. Given racial disparities in the medical profession, the ER workers whose names are most widely known are physicians, who are mostly white, in contrast to the more diverse staff of nurses, techs, and clerks. That made some staffers of color feel like they aren’t also an important part of the team, an internal task force found.

Even as the project faces challenges, Choy remains hopeful. She believes it could make a difference even if everyone doesn’t participate.

“I wouldn’t call this project a teenager yet. It’s a toddler, it just started walking,” she said. “If I can get over 50% of the emergency department team to sign in to Know My Name, I would be surprised if a shift doesn’t happen.”

Emergency rooms see patients come and go, and the workers who staff the ER rotate through shifts around the clock. Medical service providers from other departments also pop in and out.

It’s not uncommon for a relative newcomer to not know staffers’ names.

This was raised as a concern in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, and the racial justice movement that followed. Presbyterian ER convened an antiracist task force to improve the department’s culture. Staffers of color said they felt anonymous when physicians didn’t know their names.

Because physicians tend to be less diverse than clerks, medical assistants, nurses, and other hospital staffers, the discussion revealed that white workers in the ER commonly didn’t know the names of persons of color.

“I’m not part of the team, I’m nameless, I’m not being respected,” said Choy, describing the way her colleagues were feeling.

Choy felt this was an issue that the ER could solve.

But there was no playbook for her to draw on. While other departments put the photos and names of all people who work as part of the team on a bulletin board, the ER couldn’t. Staff rotates too much, over many shifts.

Choy worked with Penn, a tech firm, and others on staff to create a website that includes the preferred name of every person who works in the ER and their photo, if they feel comfortable with having it displayed.

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There is a hitch, however. Names and photos appear on the screen in the ER only if the worker logged onto the website at the beginning of their shift. And that happens rarely, since participation is voluntary.

Those who log in most often are physicians — the ones whose names are most well known because they are on every order and prescription.

Everyone knows Rashida Pickett’s name in the Presbyterian ER. The unit clerk has been working at the department for roughly seven years and is “a little popular,” she jokes.

But she remembers what it was like to be new.

“I felt uneasy that people didn’t know who I was,” she said.

Pickett was excited by the Know My Name pitch. A photographer came to the ER to take photos of staffers for the website. When she saw her “mug shot,” she didn’t like the way she looked and her enthusiasm subsided.

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Pickett does not sign into the website when she comes to work. She feels uncomfortable having her name and photo broadcasted where patients and family members can see it.

“That’s a recipe for serial killers,” said Pickett, an avid watcher of Forensic Files, a television show about how forensic specialists help solve crimes.

But she does support the effort, acknowledging it is tapping into a real issue. She thinks staff can take additional steps to claim respect, which starts with physicians using their names.

When someone calls her “secretary” or “clerk,” she doesn’t answer. Instead she smiles and says: “my name is Rashida. Hello!” And usually they respond with their name.

After that interaction, most people remember her name, she said.

“That’s something you need to assert,” Pickett said.