Herbert Pardes

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital: Translating Innovation into Practice

BACKGROUND NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) Hospital, a 2,242-bed not-for-profit academic medical center, was formed by a merger of The New York Hospital and The Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York. It is also the flagship for the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, with 37 acute care facilities and 18 others. OVERALL APPROACH TO QUALITY AND SAFETY The hospital embeds safety in the culture through strategic initiatives and enhances service and efficiency using Six Sigma and other techniques to drive adoption of improvements. Goals are selected in alignment with the annual strategic initiatives, which are chosen on the basis of satisfaction surveys, patient and family complaints, community advisory groups, and performance measures, among other sources. USE OF INFORMATION TO SET AND EVALUATE QUALITY GOALS AND PRIORITIZE INITIATIVES A new business intelligence system enables online, dynamic analysis of performance results, replacing static paper reports. Advanced features in the clinical information systems include computerized physician order entry; interactive clinical alerts for decision support; a real-time infection control tracking system; and a clinical data warehouse supporting data mining and analysis for quality improvement, decision making, and education. APPROACH TO ADDRESSING THE SIX IOM QUALITY AIMS To achieve clinical, service, and operational excellence, NYP focuses on all Institute of Medicine quality aims.

Model for a Merger: NewYork-Presbyterian’s Use of Service Lines to Bring Two Academic Medical Centers Together

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the result of the 1998 merger of two large New York City academic medical centers, the former New York and Presbyterian Hospitals, and is affiliated with two independent medical schools, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Joan and Sanford J. Weill Medical College of Cornell University. At the time of the merger, the hospital faced a number of significant challenges, chief among them the clinical integration of the two medical centers. Size, separate medical schools, geography, and different histories and cultures all presented barriers to collaboration. To bring about the needed clinical alignment, the hospital turned to service lines as a way to realize the benefits of clinical integration without forcing the consolidation of departments. In this article, members of the hospital’s senior management review the thinking behind the hospital’s use of the service lines, their development and operation, and the significant, positive effects they have had on volume, clinical quality, clinical efficiency, best practices, and revenue management. They discuss how the service lines were used to bring together the two clinical cultures, the impact they have had on the way the hospital is operated and managed, and why service lines have worked at NewYork-Presbyterian in contrast to other hospitals that tried and abandoned them. Service lines play an increasingly central role in the hospital’s clinical and business strategies, and are being extended into the NewYork-Presbyterian health care system.

The clinical research forum and association of american physicians disagree with criticism of the NIH Roadmap

As representatives of 50 leading academic medical centers focusing on clinical research and many of academic medicines scientific leaders, the Clinical Research Forum and Association of American Physicians disagree with the JCIs recent editorials on the NIH Roadmap, Elias Zerhounis leadership, and the future directions of biomedical research.

Building A Transcontinental Affiliation: A New Model For Academic Health Centers

The recent affiliation of The Methodist Hospital (TMH) with Weill Medical College (WMC) of Cornell University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the first transcontinental primary affiliation between major, not-for-profit academic health centers (AHCs) in the United States. The authors describe the process followed, the issues involved, the initial accomplishments, and the opportunities envisioned. The key enablers of this affiliation were a rapid process, mutual trust based on existing professional relationships, and commitment to the project by Board leadership. Because of their geographic separation, the parties were not competitors in providing clinical care to their regional populations. The affiliation is nonexclusive, but is reciprocally primary in New York and Texas. Members of the TMH medical staff are eligible for faculty appointments at WMC. The principal areas of collaboration will be education, research, quality improvement, information technology, and international program development. The principal challenge has been the physical distance between the parties. Although extensive use of videoconferencing has been successful, personal contact is essential in establishing relationships. External processes impose a slower sequence and tempo of events than some might wish. This new model for AHCs creates exciting possibilities for the tripartite mission of research, education, and patient care. Realizing the potential of these opportunities will require unconstrained ideas and substantial investment of time and other critical resources. Since many consider that AHCs are in economic and cultural crisis, successful development of such possibilities could have importance beyond the collective interests of these three institutions.

The Role of Academic Psychiatry in Leading Health Policy Reform

The authors discuss the current state of mental health care reform and the opportunity for academic psychiatry to emerge in a leadership role in the organization and delivery of mental health care.