R. Edward Howell, vice president and chief executive officer of the Medical Center, left, and Arthur Garson Jr., M.D., M.P.H., vice president an dean of the U.Va. School of Medicine

March 1, 2004

For the next 10 years, U.Va. Health System has one grand plan. U.Va.’s ambitious Decade Plan, implemented in July 2003, is the joint strategic plan for the entire Health System (School of Medicine, Medical Center, School of Nursing, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library and Health Services Foundation).

“The University of Virginia is positioned to continue advancing as one of the country’s most outstanding health care institutions – both clinically and academically,” says R. Edward Howell, vice president and chief executive office of the Medical Center.

Models for All of U.S.

“The theme of the Decade Plan is ‘Models for all of U.S.’ With our well-demonstrated collaboration between all University departments and components, we are increasingly recognized as among the top academic health centers in the nation,” says Arthur Garson, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., vice president and dean of the U.Va. School of Medicine. With operating committees that focus on the areas of access, service and communications; market development; clinical programs; research; education; and community service, the Decade Plan identifies specific goals and timelines for implementing plans.

In this and upcoming issues, LINK focuses on each committee’s goals and the steps that will be taken to implement these goals. Link is focusing this month on access, service and communications. The overarching goal is to “enhance access for patients…across the Health System.”

The goals for the Access, Service and Communications Committee for fiscal year 04 (which ends June 30) are:

• Establish expectations for a successful clinic area that include expectations for patients, physicians and clinic personnel, such as reducing time spent in the
waiting room

• Devise strategies to improve access, communications and service

• Implement strategies to improve patient access, such as ease of scheduling appointments

• Implement strategies to enhance and streamline communication to referring physicians

• Establish benchmarks and time lines to measure improvement, such as measuring time to next available appointment

• Establish a team to troubleshoot and coach and share best practice with individual clinics.

Committee members are developing the first clinic report card to measure clinical performance, to be presented in April. In preparation, members of the various subcommittees within the Access, Service and Communications Committee
have been working to define what needs to be done to improve clinic areas to achieve such success rates, and steps are being taken to implement these strategies for success.

What Does This Mean for You?

Achieving goals will mean some changes, says Pamela Cipriano, co-chair of the Access, Service and Communication Committee. “We are working to make systems consistent across the Health System.” Standards for access to care for the next year state that all new referrals or patient self-referrals for nonurgent care should be seen at a Health System patient care office within 10 days of calling for an appointment. All urgent referrals should be seen within 24 to 48 hours (same day or next working day) depending on level of urgency. In addition, all same-day requests for outpatient consultation made internally by U.Va. physicians or externally by outside physicians will be accommodated, with reasonable effort made for late-day requests or patients who are from out of town. Further, all noninvasive or invasive diagnostic studies will be scheduled within five working days for all elective, nonurgent patients.

Physician Communication

A separate goal is to improve communications with referring physicians. To this end, committee members are working to identify U.Va. doctors who are top performers in this area. These physicians and the approaches they use can serve as models for others. Successful physician role models may also be asked to mentor new clinical faculty and residents. Also, committee members will establish physician communications standards that will be used as a benchmark for measuring improvement.

“We know there’s work to be done, and we all need to work together to achieve these goals. We have excellent clinic medical directors and managers who have pledged to work as teams to transform all our outpatient areas to top performers,” says Jonathon Truwit, M.D., co-chair of the Access, Service and Communication Committee.