Vol. 38, No. 18

2-1-2006
By: Emily Caldwell

Top-tier destination gets closer every year, Sanfilippo announces in State of the Medical Center address

The payoff of strategic planning can seem distant when so much time is spent looking ahead. But when its rewards begin to emerge with regularity, it's clearly time well spent.

So said Fred Sanfilippo during his sixth annual State of the Medical Center address Jan. 26 in Meiling Hall Auditorium, a recap of Medical Center progress since his arrival five and a half years ago and a glimpse of the agenda for the next several years.

For Ohio State's Medical Center, the rewards of strategic planning - across all mission areas of patient care, research and education - point to significant progress toward a lofty goal set just four years ago: to rank among the top quartile of academic medical centers by 2008 as measured by nationally accepted metrics.

"The past two years in particular, we have really focused on processes. The fundamental strategy to grow, leverage our assets and develop a high-performance culture is still the focus for the Medical Center," said Sanfilippo, senior vice president and executive dean for health sciences, dean of the College of Medicine and CEO of OSU Medical Center. "Because of that focus, we have made significant progress and have seen some remarkable achievements."

U.S. News & World Report rankings of the Medical Center's clinical and academic activities in the past year are serving as strong indicators of that progress: Thirteen OSU medical specialties ranked among the best in the country; only 13 hospitals nationally have more ranked specialties in the magazine's survey, placing OSU Medical Center at 24th among more than 5,000 U.S. hospitals. In the magazine's look at graduate schools, the Ohio State College of Medicine ranked 23rd in primary school ratings and among the top 25 - already placing the college in the top quartile nationally and in the top 10 among public medical schools - for student quality and federal research funding.

All this adds up to meeting some of the reputation and resources goals before the 2008 target, Sanfilippo said. But these successes "do not mean we can coast from here on out," he said.

Far from it, in fact.

Next up for the Medical Center are two monumental efforts: beginning implementation of a 10-plus-year master space plan, marked by a substantial cancer program expansion; and making progress on a $500 million fundraising campaign that was announced Nov. 2.

That's not all. Programs in cancer, heart care, imaging, transplantation, critical care and neuroscience have been identified as signature programs intended to spearhead growth in research, clinical care and educational activities. These programs, combined with Ohio State's strengths in genetics, bioinformatics and behavioral research, are expected to have national impact on the advancement of personalized health care. Your Plan for Health, a partnership between OSU Medical Center, the Office of Human Resources and the OSU Managed Health Care System, also represents movement toward delivery of health care based on individuals' characteristics.

The signature program identification and subsequent investments resulted from the detailed planning and leadership development launched shortly after Sanfilippo arrived in 2000. As part of those efforts, the past year also has involved a decidedly inward focus, with 2,000 faculty and staff attending more than 30 town meetings led by Sanfilippo and Health System CEO Peter Geier, as well as completion of a faculty/staff survey that showed 76 percent overall job satisfaction and 82 percent of respondents expressing confidence in the Medical Center's future. Both scores exceed national health care normative scores of 71 and 62 percent, respectively.

Sanfilippo noted highlights of the past year, including:
¥ the OSU Health System reported solid financial results;
¥ the Medical Center generated over $65 million to support its mission;
¥ research grant funding continued to increase - by 14.9 percent from fiscal year 2004-05;
¥ student applications soared;
¥ nearly 250 new faculty were recruited along with three department chairs and four administrative leaders;
¥ University Hospital's nursing staff was awarded the national designation of magnet status; and
¥ the OSU Physicians practice plan achieved 100 percent regular clinical faculty membership and a 19 percent growth in revenues.

"This list of accomplishments is meaningful not because it sounds impressive, but because the institution set goals and worked as an organization to increase effectiveness across the board," Sanfilippo said. "Meeting our goals is not done in a vacuum, just for our own benefit. Ultimately, we are here for the community, to train future physicians and scientists, cultivate medical discoveries, provide the latest innovations in health care and employ thousands of citizens. And the higher our overall quality is, the more the community benefits."

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