Dr. Gabbe looks back on his first year, what's been accomplished and where we're headed.
Hi! Let’s talk about the power of one year. It’s hard for me to believe that one year ago this month I was starting my first day back at OSU Medical Center.
I’d like to take this time to thank all of you who have made my first year so special. I’ve enjoyed renewing old friendships and creating new ones. And all of you have been very kind to me and my wife Pat.
This first year I’ve talked a lot about the Power of One. How by working together as one university and one medical center we’re able to accomplish so much more than by competing or working separately. Together we can truly improve people’s lives.
I’d like to take a moment to share how your commitment to teamwork and excellence has advanced OSU Medical Center in just one short year.
We formed collaborative leadership teams. This year, I’ve established two leadership bodies here at the Medical Center to make timely decisions and guide the growth of the Medical Center. The Executive Cabinet meets every week to review program expansion plans including recruitment, monitor our finances, and look for ways to be even more successful as an organization. The Leadership Council meets monthly and learns of important initiatives in the Medical Center to take back and share among their teams. Also this year, in the spirit of collaborative leadership, the Board of Trustees established a Medical Center Board. This new board will help to even better align our hospitals around areas of common importance –such as patient safety, quality, and service.
This year we’ve seen remarkable growth. This is even more amazing given that many companies are not only slowing growth but closing and consolidating. Due to your commitment to excellence, demand for our services has increased and we have expanded. The Ross opened two new floors, we opened a new MRI facility and we have announced our plans to complete three new floors within the Biomedical Research Tower, we’re also near completion of a new parking garage on Ninth Avenue. We’re also growing our services beyond the campus boundaries. In August, the Eye and Ear Institute will open with a new approach to multi-specialty care.
Our growth is not only in our facilities but also in the number of nationally recognized expert physician leaders who have joined us this year, including Drs. Jason Calhoun, Arnab Chakavarti, Ted Teknos and Michael Ruff. Dr. Ali Rezai, a pioneer in deep brain stimulation for treatment of movement disorders, will be joining us this month from the Cleveland Clinic. Two of our own leaders have accepted roles of increased responsibility. Dr. Clay Marsh is now serving as our Vice Dean of Research and Dr. Ron Harter as Chair of Anesthesiology.
We’re also growing our outreach into the communities and we’ve increased our community benefits to over $144 million this year. Expanding the Medical Center’s role in community health is an important personal goal of mine.
Additionally, Pelotonia, the bike race that NetJets funded to support cancer research at the James and Richard Solove Research Institute, expands our reach to hundreds of active people who are riding for a cure. It’s not too late to join us and Lance Armstrong on August 28. Please sign up to ride, support a rider, or volunteer. It’s sure to be a memorable and a FUN time. By the way, Pat and I will be riding a tandem in Pelotonia.
This year we’ve seen progress in our reputation and level of achievement. The OSU College of Medicine ranked among the top 10 public medical schools in the country this year. OSU’s growth in Medical School rankings over the last several years is remarkable and we’re very close to meeting our goal of being in the top 20 overall. Our University Hospital and Ross nursing teams recently received Magnet redesignation – an achievement only realized by 2% of the hospitals in the country. We’ve made huge improvements in our Emergency Department patient experience by opening our clinical decision unit and by making process and system improvements. Our “left without being seen” measure is now among the lowest in the country. Last year at this time, it was much higher.
This year was not without challenge. We’ve been recognized nationally for the way we handled the H1N1 flu outbreak and we’ve continued to meet our financial goals even in the face of an economic downturn due to diligent monitoring and changing the ways we do things. We’ve met these challenges with integrity and teamwork and I’m very proud to be a part of this team.
As I look ahead to our next year together, I’m energized by the possibilities for progress.
Progress in Project One, Progress in our improving our safety and service, Progress in areas of focus: our Signature programs, Robotics, and community health based care, just to name a few.
There will be progress in Personalized Health Care. We’ll see the start of several pilot projects to integrate personalized health care right into our health care delivery system. We’ll make progress in research and education. We’re anticipating new research projects funded by stimulus dollars and expansions of our clinical skills labs for our students.
This progress will only be made possible with our continued commitment to our values, our patients, our community and to each other. I hope you’ll join me in moving the Power of One to year 2.
Have a great week!