August 1, 2013

E2E update: VUMC operational efficiency effort making strides

Evolve to Excel (E2E), a comprehensive initiative designed to strengthen operational practices throughout Vanderbilt University Medical Center to ensure long-term success of the organization, is moving ahead.

Evolve to Excel (E2E), a comprehensive initiative designed to strengthen operational practices throughout Vanderbilt University Medical Center to ensure long-term success of the organization, is moving ahead.

E2E, which was announced in June, is the broad institutional change effort to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and financial performance of VUMC’s operations across its clinical enterprise and the School of Medicine in an effort to meet the new economic realities facing health care delivery and research.

E2E is in response to current and future financial pressures created by declining reimbursements for the treatment of Medicare and Medicaid patients along with reductions to federal research funding, actions associated with the federal sequester and other legislative actions aimed to address the national debt.

The team leading E2E consists of 30 Medical Center and University employees who are content experts in areas necessary to move the change process forward. These individuals, who bring a variety of experience and tenure to the table, have temporarily redirected their efforts from normal day-to-day responsibilities and have relocated to a project management office to concentrate on E2E.

The project management office is in turn coordinating with approximately 100 functional and clinical leaders from throughout VUMC to guide the direction of the activity-driven change process. The VUMC content experts will be designing a solution that stays true to the missions of VUMC, examining work operations first, before the people who perform that work.

“Because this work is so vital to the Medical Center’s future, we are grateful to these leaders for the commitment of their time and expertise to E2E,” said John Manning Jr., Ph.D., MBA, associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and chief administrative officer for VUMC.

E2E is focused on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Medical Center across all areas. Providing assistance to the E2E process is a team of external consultants who are leaders in advising health systems on economic repositioning.

Through E2E, the Medical Center’s goal is to achieve $100 million in operational cost savings during the current fiscal year and a total operational cost savings of $250 million by the end of fiscal year 2015. The E2E process will enable the Medical Center to achieve these goals while preserving VUMC’s mission-critical programs.

“Those familiar with Vanderbilt understand that its emphasis always places our patients first. As we make our way through this activity-driven process to make the Medical Center more effective and efficient, we are focusing first on non-clinical activities but will be looking at all areas to see how we can ensure long-term success and continue in our role as a national leader in patient care, research and education. Future decisions about staffing will be centered around what is necessary to sustain these missions,” said David Posch, CEO of Vanderbilt Hospitals and Clinics and executive director of Vanderbilt Medical Group.