Community Benefit Programs Message to the Community
At the end of 2008, I packed up my office and moved to our beautiful new Heart & Vascular Institute. If you haven’t moved your office in a while, do you realize how much stuff you keep? I had 10 years of paperwork and files to sort through. It was a long and quite laborious process, and one I delayed as long as I could. But in the end, it was an exercise that also was tremendously rewarding. As I culled through documents, I was able to reminisce about the many noteworthy accomplishments of this organization during the past 10 years. It was incredible ...what a difference a decade makes! Our patient satisfaction and financial performance are unrivaled by most hospitals in the Southeast. If you look at quality indicators, it is amazing how far we have come. Our scores — good when we started — have steadily improved while we reported our activities for the world to scrutinize. Ten years ago, our board didn’t look at our quality indicators – they relied on us to make sure clinical quality was up-to-par. Now, it is the most important thing we talk about in our board meetings. In 2008, University experienced a wake-up call. Hospitals our size across the country are operating in the red or even closing. We’re not there. We’re strong. But this year showed us that health care is far from immune during a struggling economy. We are going through unprecedented change. But even with all the challenges we have coming, I am more excited for this upcoming year than I have been for the past 10. For starters, we have opened our new Heart & Vascular Institute with a new model of care that rivals the nation’s health care leaders. We will weather the challenges well. There is an awesome team at work within University that will find new ways to save time and money for those things that matter most – caring for our patients. This time next year, we will celebrate our successes together.
J. Larry Read, President/CEO University Health Care System
2008 Community Report
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