The Board of Regents took action on Friday that authorized key campus leaders to move forward in aligning the entire clinical enterprise associated with UNMC.
By unanimous vote, the regents authorized and directed UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. — in consultation with Regents Chairman Howard Hawks, Interim President James Linder, M.D., and general counsel Joel Pedersen — to negotiate terms and conditions of governance documents that are necessary to align the clinical enterprise.
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Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. |
The Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC Physicians and Bellevue Medical Center are undertaking steps to amend and restate governance documents — and other related documents — to reorganize. Among others, these documents include the joint operating agreement and academic affiliation agreement between UNMC and the newly formed enterprise, under the leadership of a newly formed Board of Trustees.
“Much work has been done over the past years to align our clinical partners into a single clinical enterprise that will benefit not only the patient experience, but also optimize the research and educational missions of UNMC,” Dr. Gold said. “Over the next month, several agreements will be necessary to finalize this alignment.”
While the alignment is expected to take effect July 1, it is possible that specific steps required to implement the alignment may take place over the last half of 2014.
The changes are necessary, Dr. Gold said, because health care institutions — particularly academic medical centers such as UNMC — face new expectations and challenges to optimally serve our community.
Advisory board
Since January, an 11-member advisory board chaired by Dr. Gold has led work on the critical issues that will shape the new enterprise, which is led by CEO Bill Dinsmoor and President Brad Britigan, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine. Dozens of teams of physicians and staff are working on performance improvement projects on the campus to coincide with this realignment.
“The next steps require us to build on traditional educational, clinical and research strengths while developing new ways to organize and deliver care,” Dr. Gold said. “This care will be team-based, patient-centered, effective and affordable.”
Dr. Gold said that the new enterprise has a strong strategic approach driven by a shared mission, vision and values.
“The goals for the governance of the new enterprise include clarity and simplicity, using nationally recognized models that are the best of the best,” Dr. Gold said. “Our system will be nimble in a changing environment and feature a governance structure that will provide great flexibility for future alliances. We also will simplify infrastructure management, maximize branding opportunities for the clinical enterprise, and continue to optimize academic and private community-based physician networks. These changes are broadly supported, time sensitive and critical to building our future.”