Harry Jacobson, M.D., at this week’s Fall Faculty Meeting. (photo by Neil Brake)
Faculty meet opens eyes to ‘Vision 2020’
Vision 2020, Vanderbilt's expansion to 100 Oaks, and Vanderbilt Medical Group's growth in Williamson County were among the topics touched upon by Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Harry Jacobson, M.D., at Monday's Fall Faculty Meeting.
Vision 2020 will expand the academic medicine mission of “Research, Training and Patient Care” to a flywheel model that demonstrates how “Working in New Ways, Getting Results that Matter and Transferring Knowledge” can drive an “impact on society.”
“We think it's time to step back and engage the faculty in grassroots strategy development. We are calling that process Vision 2020,” Jacobson said. “It is something that will be a continuous process. No longer can we do a strategy plan and look at it every year and check off stuff. There are too many things changing for us to have a static strategic plan. It has to be alive and continuously refreshed and have ongoing input from the faculty.”
Vision 2020 will focus on outcomes that matter, export what we know and redefine how care, teaching and research are done. Jacobson promised that faculty, as well as all employees, will be hearing a lot more about this in the coming months.
Jacobson outlined plans for a second medical campus at 100 Oaks, which, he said, offers excellent visibility, recognition and interstate access.
Located on 56 acres with up to 450,000 square feet of space requiring only moderate renovation, the campus will accommodate the full measure of academics with the exception of basic laboratory research. It is also cost effective.
“Expanding to 100 Oaks will save us $53 million versus building on our current location,” Jacobson said.
Williamson County outpatient visits have grown by 20 percent to more than 200,000 visits over the past year. About 63 percent of Williamson County consumers indicate that they would prefer for Vanderbilt medical services to be available near their home versus their work. Vanderbilt's evolving strategy includes continuing with the plan to place a substantial number of physicians in the county and targeting specialty growth to the needs of the population and the referral demands of its primary care base.
“Our goal is to strengthen our relationship with physician and political leadership of Williamson County — ultimately to develop a business relationship with Williamson Medical Center,” Jacobson said, adding that plans are in place to pursue consolidation of Vanderbilt specialty practices into a central Williamson County location.
Jacobson used VUMC's five elevate pillars — people, service, quality, growth and finance — as an outline for his speech measuring the Medical Center's progress and highlighting patient, physician and resident satisfaction scores for 'Overall Quality of Care.'
An annual survey of 1,900 Nashville-area households shows VUMC was deemed Middle Tennessee's 'Hospital of Choice,' with 20.1 percent of the vote. Vanderbilt also captured 21.2 percent for its friendly, helpful employees, up from 8.3 percent in 1996.
“This is an amazing statistic,” Jacobson said. “Happy employees equal happy customers. Elevate has been helpful in creating this difference. We can never stop that. All of you need to smile more.”
In the area of growth, VUMC has 2008 goals to meet or exceed projections for inpatient admissions, outpatient visits and surgical operations. Research awards are hoped to increase by 5 percent. Vanderbilt ranked 12th in the nation in NIH funding, with $245.5 million in fiscal year 2006. By comparison, it ranked 24th in 2000.
Vanderbilt's portion of uncompensated care was $184.4 million last year, representing 49.5 percent of the total for Davidson County health care providers.
In terms of finances, Jacobson said the past year was the best year the Medical Center has ever had. The goal for this year is to increase hospital and clinic revenues by 12.2 percent and to increase the overall bottom line to greater than $55 million after development.