Yale University Health Services Strategic Initiatives

The YUHS Executive Committee – composed of senior clinical and administrative leaders – meets regularly to define what we call strategic goals. We use the term “strategic” because we focus on initiatives that are vital for positioning YUHS for future success in both the short and long terms. Many strategic goals are in the queue for the future; at the same time, we are seeing many of our goals from the past come to fruition as I write – such as the electronic medical record and numerous clinical initiatives. The following are the specific goals that we have decided are most important for YUHS right now:

1. Successful accreditation by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in 2005, and then maintenance of YUHS accreditation over time. The ongoing success of this project will position YUHS for the future by helping us to define standards of clinical quality and service to our members and to create consistent policies and procedures for dealing with a broad spectrum of organizational issues. Accreditation requires that we use measurement and data collection to track improvement and to identify areas needing greater attention. Examples of areas that are benefiting from these new standards include: waiting times for appointments; quality of documentation in the medical record; aspects of our approach to patient care, including specific interventions for members with chronic health conditions and special health risks; and maintenance of our facility.
2. An ongoing priority that we have previously described in Yale Health Care is population medicine, a model in which we identify populations of patients and define best preventive practices and care interventions to help them remain as healthy as possible. We have enjoyed outstanding success with our population medicine programs such as immunizations for children and adults and care for groups with health conditions such as diabetes mellitus and asthma. We will continue with other ambitious programs. For instance: integrating all of our secure data registries under one “virtual roof”; and development of a program for management of patients with risk factors for (or established) cardiovascular disease and ensuring that their access to the best available therapies.
3. Clinical process improvement means strategic focus and dedication of resources for some of our large, high-volume clinical areas to improve telephone and appointment access. The Executive Committee work group on clinical process improvement will establish priorities based on data and use this data to measure improvement. Among their charges: eliminating duplicative work processes; redefining work processes so that our members’ use of these departments goes more smoothly; looking for non-clinical work that could be moved out of the clinics so that the entire clinical team can concentrate its attention on patient needs. This work group will define measures of performance for the staff of the large clinical departments to ensure that managers have tools for tracking success and continually striving to improve patient service and clinical access.
4. Finally, we have identified communication as a strategic goal. Although we have made strides in communicating with our members, we have a long way to go in developing a comprehensive strategy that encompasses the growing need for timely and relevant information to and from countless constituencies. Consider, for instance, the YUHS staff. In addition to our long time clinical, administrative and maintenance staff members, we have a constant influx of new staff members, employees who work during the off-hours or part-time, and consultants who work off-site. Then there are the many constituencies of our membership group, including students and faculty and their dependents right here and New Haven and those working in remote locations on different continents! And don’t forget our retirees, the University’s staff, and the 23% of Yale employees who are not Yale Health Plan members. We also interact with many Yale administrative offices, such as Benefits, Human Resources and the Budget Office. Plus city, state and federal regulatory agencies, our peer institutions and on and on. Communication means more than getting our message out. Ensuring that we have a well-managed and responsive program for listening is equally important. We have made strides in this arena, but are looking forward to becoming even better and both listening and disseminating information.