Outside the Presidency- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Outside the Presidency- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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July 13, 2001
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In This Issue:
Funds from the Fun Run
Outside the Presidency
BWH/MGH Make 2001 Honor Roll of “America’s Best Hospitals"
The Benefits of Membership: Operational Benchmarking
The Latest on Prostate Health
Staff Survey Ice Cream Social
Be a Book Buddy
Office Moves
Notice: A Section of Francis Street to Temporarily Close
New Clinic Focuses on Transplant Recipients’ Skin Healt
Personal Package Reminder
Street Beat 2001
A Conversation with Jeff Otten
In January, BWH President Jeffrey Otten was named chairman of the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), an alliance of the clinical enterprises of academic health centers. Otten spoke with Bulletin regarding the first six months of his two year term.
Q: From your position as UHC chair, what are the issues most relevant to academic health centers across the country?
A: A common theme is the challenge we face in directing the major initiatives in many diverse areas - patient safety; patient satisfaction; labor shortages; cost increases in energy, blood supply and pharmaceuticals; and declining reimbursement from payers. All of these need to be addressed simultaneously, but there are only so many management resources we can allocate to each. At BWH, we have other major issues to be attentive to as well, including our cardiac surgery program with Cape Cod Hospital, a major reengineering of our revenue captive systems, and reducing our length of inpatient stay.
Q: What knowledge/insight have you gained and brought back to BWH since beginning your role as UHC chair?
A: Although I’ve been chair for six months, I’ve been an active member of UHC since 1985. I’ve found participation to always yield benefits to my understanding of issues and alternative solutions to problems that the member institutions commonly face. In the last six months alone, BWH has been taking advantage of UHC’s clinical database to benchmark quality indicators and length of stay.
Q: What is the one challenge that UHC can most help academic health centers face over the next year?
A: UHC facilitates institutional learning through open sharing of data and processes. We can learn best practices from any of the more than 80 UHC members on many of the issues I mentioned, so the Consortium greatly assists us to continuously improve our fine organization (see related article on UHC’s operational benchmarking, page 2).
Q: What BWH standards/ practices are other UHC members most interested in hearing about?
A: The other members hold BWH in very high esteem. They are quite familiar with our reputation for high quality clinical services and academic excellence. Most questions are directed toward our computerized order entry system and our leadership in service efficiency— they want to know how we do it. I tell them we put a high premium on excellence in everything we do, and I always mention our Quality of Worklife initiatives.
Q: As chair, how would you like UHC’s impact on academic health centers to evolve during your term?
A: There are many complex operational issues that the members commonly face, such as investment in information technology and better management of the revenue cycle. I would like to focus UHC’s efforts in these areas over the next two years, as I feel they are absolutely crucial to the success of academic medical centers.