As part of the Evolve to Excel (E2E) operational change initiative, senior leadership from across Vanderbilt University Medical Center gathered last week for an intensive, daylong session to carefully evaluate proposals for operational change brought forth from throughout the organization.
The informative, collaborative and highly productive gathering took place at Vanderbilt’s Center for Better Health and was held to ensure VUMC’s continued excellence across all three missions — patient care, research and education.
Approximately 100 senior leaders from across the enterprise evaluated proposed changes in an effort to focus on the continued assurance of quality and safety in clinical care. Attending the event, in addition to Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, were C. Wright Pinson, MBA, M.D., deputy vice chancellor for Health Affairs and CEO of the Vanderbilt Health System; Marilyn Dubree, MSN, R.N., VUMC’s executive chief nursing officer; John F. Manning Jr., Ph.D., MBA, associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and chief administrative officer for VUMC; Luke Gregory, chief executive officer of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and David Posch, CEO of Vanderbilt Hospitals and Clinics and executive director of the Vanderbilt Medical Group.
Balser opened the gathering by reiterating to those in attendance that changes proposed through E2E should be anchored in a mission-focused and structured process.
“We need to change to sustain our missions,” he told the group. “We are re-engineering our workplace in way that will further sustain and strengthen the viability of our core missions.”
Announced in June, E2E is the broad institutional change initiative undertaken to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and financial performance for VUMC’s operations across the enterprise and to position the Medical Center to thrive given the economic climate facing U.S. health care delivery and research.
Through E2E, the Medical Center’s goal is to achieve $100 million in operational savings during the current fiscal year and a total operational savings of $250 million by the end of fiscal year 2015.
