Etta D. Pisano, M.D., dean, College of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs, met with faculty and staff at a Dec. 12 town hall meeting. She introduced details of the clinical enterprise strategic plan, provided an update about space management and reviewed details about Epic.

Clinical enterprise strategic plan
Since last spring, leaders in the College of Medicine, MUHA and MUSC Physicians (formerly known as University Medical Associates), have worked with the Beckham Company, a health care strategy company, to devise a plan that will guide MUSC's strategic efforts for the next several years. The plan will focus on MUSC being nationally recognized as a premier academic medical center, with the intent of being ranked among the top 25 academic medical centers for reputation, quality, service, efficiency and financial performance by 2015.

"This is the first time this organization has done a strategic plan that crosses the boundaries between the hospital, practice plan and medical school. I'm really excited about this effort and I think the plan is achievable, because the organization has collectively decided to commit itself to the vision and strategies set forth in the plan."
After months of discussion, participants identified seven driving strategies to focus on with leaders.

• Unify and align the clinical enterprise to facilitate decision making, enhance coordination of care, build accountability and drive down costs. Strategy leaders—Jack Feussner, M.D., and Stuart Smith;
• Expand awareness, preference and market leadership for the MUSC brand—Phil Costello, M.D., and Smith;
• Strategically expand access and capacity—Peter Zwerner, M.D., and Patrick Cawley, M.D.;
  
• Aggressively grow primary care and outpatient services—Feussner and Zwerner;
  
• Establish statewide partnerships to provide the right care in the right place at the right time—Phil Saul, M.D., and Mark Lyles, M.D.;
  
• Build human and financial capital to grow expertise, learning, discovery and reputation—Steve Valerio and Lisa Montgomery;
  
• Intensify investment in information and communications systems to leverage MUSC's expertise and access—Bob Warren, M.D., and Mike Balassone.
  

The plan and strategies were approved by the MUSC board of trustees at its December meeting.

Implementation of the strategic plan officially began Jan. 9, and strategy leaders are constituting their teams, establishing metrics to measure success, identifying resources needed and setting timelines. According to Pisano, each strategy team will share their progress throughout the plan's implementation. A Leadership Development Institute focused on the clinical enterprise strategic plan is scheduled for Feb. 3.

Space management
Efforts around space management within the College of Medicine continue to progress with the shifting of responsibility for space management from the provost's office to the six college deans. According to Pisano, the university's new funds flow process will shift the financial responsibility for space to the colleges, which necessitates each college having authority over management of space. "We need to ensure that space is available for whatever priority there is on campus," said Pisano.

In her first year, Pisano broadly discussed within the College of Medicine and with university leadership the space management process being implemented within the college. From the beginning, Pisano has been committed to creating a process that is data driven, transparent, consistent and inclusive. To manage this, separate clinical and academic space committees were meet regularly to discuss space requests as well as other related issues and make their recommendations to the dean, who makes the final decision for assignments.

Ambulatory electronic medical record
MUSC will launch the Epic ambulatory medical record this spring as a replacement to the current system, Practice Partner. Epic will help improve quality of care and patient safety as well as improve efficiency and effectiveness while maintaining a continuum of care for patients.

The system is expected to impact 5,000 users and is scheduled to go live starting March 22 in five pilot clinics - University Internal Medicine, Pediatric Cardiology, Carolina Family Care Practice (Two Island Court, Mount Pleasant), Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and East Cooper OB/GYN. All other user of Practice Partner will switch to Epic May 17.
A number of users have already been trained on the new system and training sessions will be scheduled for all users during the next several months. Successful implementation of Epic will require the cooperation and patience of all those involved.