Meharry Medical College

M-PACT: Meharry’s Plan for Action 2009-2014

Contents:

Introduction

Planning Process

Mission Statement

Vision Statement

Core Values

Strategic Priorities

Strategic Pathways

Strategic Pathway I: Educational Excellence

Strategic Pathway II: Faculty Recruitment, Retention, And Development

Strategic Pathway III: Clinical Excellence

Strategic Pathway IV: Research Excellence

Strategic Pathway V: Operational Excellence

Strategic Pathway VI: Facilities, Infrastructure and Environmental Excellence

Strategic Pathway VII: Financial Performance

Measuring Progress

Appendix A: 2008 Work Group Members

Appendix B: Meharry Medical College Revised SWOT Analysis

M-PACT, Meharry’s Plan for Action 2009-2014
Planning and Implementation Timeline

2008

January 28 Strategic planning process launched with all-day retreat. Sixty-five (65) members of the Meharry community participated in the retreat.

Strategic Planning Task Force appointed.

February-April
Work Groups involving faculty, staff, and students were formed to identify challenges, determine the current state of affairs, and make recommendations for the future. The work groups focused on six key areas: Educational Excellence, Research Mission, the Clinical Enterprise, Service Delivery, Recruitment and Retention, and Operating as One Meharry.

Work Group leaders reported outcomes to the Task Force.

Final reports were consolidated into one document.

May The Board of Trustees was briefed on the organization and status of the strategic planning process.

July and August The Executive Management Team (EMT) held half-day retreats to review recommendations developed by the Work Groups and Task Force. In addition to prioritizing recommendations from the Work Groups, the EMT revised the College’s Mission, Vision, and Core Values statements, and changed the focus areas. Service Delivery and Operating as One Meharry were combined and renamed Operational Excellence. Facilities, Infrastructure and Environmental Excellence and Financial Performance were added as new focus areas.

September The EMT’s prioritized goals were sent to the Task Force. The Task Force developed a preliminary scorecard for monitoring and tracking outcomes for the approved goals.

A summary of outcomes from the 2004-2008 Strategic Plan was compiled.

October First draft of the strategic plan, M-Pact, Meharry’s Plan for Action 2009-2014, was presented to the Board of Trustees for approval.

The Trustees recommended revisions for the mission statement, core values, and goal statements. They requested a report that highlighted goals that would be addressed during the first year of the strategic plan.

November - December The Task Force prioritized the goals that would be addressed in the first and subsequent years of the strategic plan.

2009

January
The EMT approved goals that would be addressed during the first year of the strategic plan.

February
The second draft of M-Pact, Meharry’s Plan for Action was present to the Board of Trustees. The draft included all recommendations from the October board meeting.

The Board of Trustees accepted recommended goals for the first year of the strategic plan.

March-April
Task Force members convened work groups to prepare operational plans for strategic goals to be addressed during 2009-2010. Faculty, staff, and students from each school and administrative division participated in the work groups.

May

The preliminary operational plans for 2009-2010 were reviewed by the EMT.

M-Pact was presented for final approval by the Board of Trustees. Some committee chairs asked for additional time to review goals and objectives that impacted their areas fo responsibility. The vote was delayed with the intent of comvening a teleconference of the Executive Committee to vote on the plan.

June
The operational plan for 2009-2010 and outcome measures will be finalized.

July-September
The Executive Vice President contacted each BOT Executive Committee member to answer questions about the strategic plan goals and objectives. Additional recommendations were noted.

The Executive Committee met by teleconference and gave its full approval to the Strategic Plan for 2009-2014 on September 30, 2009.

October
M-Pact!, Meharry's Plan for Action 2009-2010 was formally implemented.

Introduction

M-Pact, Meharry’s Plan for Action, is the product of an effort designed to identify the College’s greatest opportunities for advancement and to define the resources and strategies required for success in a dynamic healthcare environment. This inclusive process provided each constituency of the College multiple opportunities for input through retreats, focus groups, surveys, and task force meetings. We began with a review of the successes and shortcomings of previous planning efforts; we analyzed institutional strengths and weaknesses; we assessed relevant information about major trends in healthcare and health professions training programs; and we carefully examined new opportunities that would have an impact on the College’s future.

PLANNING PROCESS

On January 23, 2008, Meharry’s comprehensive strategic planning process was launched with an all day retreat convened by President Wayne J. Riley. This was the first phase in the creation of “M-PACT,” Meharry’s Plan for ACTion. During this retreat, we created a plan for surfacing major themes for the future that would allow us to have an impact—an “M-Pact” on our institution, an “M-Pact” on our students, and an “M-Pact” on our community, the nation, and the entire world.

We engaged more than 65 members of the Meharry Medical College (MMC) community, including administrators, faculty, staff, students, a resident, a post-doc, the CEO of Nashville General Hospital at Meharry, a representative of the Meharry/Vanderbilt Alliance, and members of the Meharry Board of Trustees, in this one day workshop. The session was held at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health, an organization that has successfully used a “design-shop” process to help many academic health centers, Fortune 500 companies, and government entities to resolve complex issues and accelerate work to achieve their goals. The facilitators captured the actual proceedings of the day, which provided the opportunity to replay all recorded sessions and review the documented work of the day in a web-journal. The web-journal was available for use during follow-up meetings.

The MMC team identified six major focus areas for the planning process and assigned work group leaders for each area. The focus areas and their leaders were as follows. (A list of the participants on the Task Force, work groups, data team, and Executive Management Team and a photo of participants in the January Planning retreat are included as Appendix A.)

Recruitment and Retention	Karen Lewis
The Education Mission	Drs. Daphne Young, Anthony Disher, and Susanne Tropez-Sims
The Research Mission	Dr. Hubert Rucker
The Clinical Mission	Drs. Chike Nzerue and Gloria Richard Davis
Service Delivery	Lori Donnell and Veronica Johnson
Operating as One Meharry	Janet Caldwell

Each Work Group developed charge and mission statements during the retreat, which were debated and refined during subsequent meetings. The Work Groups were also charged with: (1) identifying the particular challenges within their area; (2) determining the current state of affairs; and (3) making recommendations for the future. They were also required to provide an operational focus on how to implement strategies to address the recommendations. Additionally, the groups were charged with following a prescribed schedule for completing the work by the April 15th deadline.

Following the retreat, each Work Group was expanded to include additional staff, faculty, and students. The Work Groups further expanded involvement of the campus community by inviting participation in focus groups and surveys.

The strategic planning Task Force, was led by former Executive Vice President (EVP) Dr. Angela L.W. Franklin was formed immediately after the retreat. The Task Force included all Work group leaders, the Director of Planning, and other administrative support staff. The Task Force met bi-weekly through April. During the meetings, the Task Force received progress reports from the Work Groups and made recommendations for enhancing, streamlining, or refocusing discussion within the groups.

The final reports from each Work Group were reviewed and consolidated into one document, which was forwarded to the Executive Management Team (EMT) for review and prioritization of the recommendations. A briefing about the strategic planning progress was presented to the Board of Trustees during the May 2008 meeting, and preliminary approval was granted for its implementation.

On July 14-15, 2008, the EMT engaged in a “mini-retreat” to begin the work of prioritizing recommendations from the Work Groups. In addition, EMT engaged in an exercise to review the relevancy of the current SWOT Analysis, Mission Statement, and Core Values. The revised SWOT Analysis is attached as Appendix B. The EMT also worked to create a collective vision for the future of the College. Overarching goals were established during this retreat with particular emphasis placed on establishing the metrics for review and evaluation.

Following a second mini-retreat of the EMT on August 12-13, 2008, all prioritized goals were sent back to the Task Force for creating the final document and a schematic design for dashboard reporting. The first draft of the strategic planning document, M-Pact, Meharry’s Plan for Action 2009-2014, was presented to the Board of Trustees for review at the October 2008 Board meeting.

The Trustees responded to the report with recommendations concerning the revised mission statement, core values, and the goal statements. Given the nation’s current economic issues, the Trustees asked that administrators prepare an economic forecast for the College and identify goals that will be addressed during the first and subsequent years of the strategic plan. The changes requested by the Board of Trustees at the October 2008 Board meeting were imcorporated into the document. When presented to the Board in February 2009, the strategic plan and the first year goals were accepted. Following the Board meeting, the Strategic Planning Task Force was reconvened and given instructions to begin work on operational plans for 2009-2010. The operational plans will serve as a roadmap for accomplishing the first year goals of the strategic plan.

Task force members have invited participants in the previous work groups as well as additional faculty, staff, or students to assist with identifying strategies, tasks, responsible offices or persons, resource needs, and completion dates for each of the first year goals. The Strategic Planning Task Force and work groups will continue refining the operational plans by finalizing key performance indicators and monitoring outcomes throughout 2009-2010. A Strategic Planning Website was created for the campus community and will be launched following Board approval of the entire strategic plan. During the May 2009 Board of Trustees meeting, the strategic plan was presented for final approval by the trestees. Some committee chairs requested additional time for further review of the plan relative to their areas of responsibility. They agreed to convene a teleconference to vote on final approval of the plan by June 30, 2009. Conversations between Dr. Franklin and BOT committee chairs yielded additional suggestions for presenting the information and adding information about the sources of funding. These changes were made. Due to the availability of various committee members, the teleconfernce was delayed until a quorum was scheduled. On September 30, 2009, the Meharry Medical College Board of Trustees Executive Committee formally approved the strategic plan, MPACT! Meharry's Plan for Action 2009-2014.

MISSION STATEMENT

The updated mission statement is as follows (changes are in bold type):

Meharry Medical College is an academic health center that exists to improve the health and health care of minority and underserved communities by offering excellent education and training programs in the health sciences. True to its heritage, Meharry places special emphasis on providing opportunities for people of color, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and others regardless of race or ethnicity; delivering high quality health services; and conducting research that fosters the elimination of health disparities.

VISION STATEMENT

To enhance our national reputation and expand our global reach as a quality-driven academic health center noted for its:

Leadership in diversifying the nation’s health professions work force
Highly effective and innovative educational and training programs
Enlightened health policy development and culturally-sensitive, evidence-based health services
Preeminence in focused research that leads to the elimination of health disparities

CORE VALUES

Excellence: consistently achieving outstanding levels of performance while upholding the highest standards of ethical behavior, intellectual honesty, and professional conduct.

Service: maintaining a nurturing and service-oriented environment that exceeds expectations and treats all people with compassion, dignity, and respect.

Accountability: accepting individual and collective responsibility for preserving and effectively managing the resources of the College.

Teamwork: encouraging, supporting and valuing the collaborative efforts of faculty, staff, and students to advance the quality of education, research, and patient care.

Innovation: promoting creativity and the development of ideas that stimulate improvements in our intellectual and operational endeavors.

Diversity: fostering ethnic, intellectual, social, and cultural diversity.

Community-focused: demonstrating our concern for the health care needs of underserved communities and advocating for local, state, and national health and public policies directed at improving the status of health of all individuals.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

At the beginning of the planning process, six themes emerged as primary areas of focus: Education Mission, Clinical Mission, Research Mission, Recruitment and Retention, Service Delivery, and Operating as One Meharry. Relevant strategic priority statements were developed to represent the fundamental aims of the strategic plan. Goals and strategies also were designed to help position the College for a new level of excellence and for national prominence. Two focus areas (Operating as One Meharry and Service Delivery) were merged to encompass one overarching priority, which is Operational Excellence. Two new priorities, Facilities, Infrastructure and Environmental Excellence and Financial Performance were added to the strategic plan.

Below is a summary of the seven major initiatives that will provide the “pathways” to institutional effectiveness. These pathways will drive institutional direction and guide the targeted investment of resources.

1. Educational Excellence

We will provide an enriching environment, which assures and sustains academic excellence and professional competency in all academic programs, by enhancing and strengthening the quality of our instructional programs, incrementally growing the size of existing programs, and adding new graduate degree programs.

2. Faculty Recruitment, Retention, and Development

We will attract and sustain a cadre of committed and productive faculty who exemplify the highest standards of personal ethics and professional excellence in teaching, research, patient care, and community service.

3. Clinical Excellence

We will diversify and expand our clinical enterprise by maintaining our primary care focus and targeting selected specialty areas that meet the community’s needs.

4. Research Excellence

We will capitalize on our research strengths and elevate the competitive quality and quantity of basic, clinical, translational, and community-service research to achieve a reduction in health disparities.

5. Operational Excellence

Operating as one Meharry, we will strengthen MMC’s organizational structure, processes, and culture to ensure the highest standards of performance, responsiveness, and accountability.

6. Facilities, Infrastructure and Environmental Excellence

We will augment our facilities to demonstrate a long term commitment to providing an efficient, safe, and user friendly environment that enhances teaching, learning, research, and service delivery.

7. Financial Performance

We will continue to project the College on a path of financial health that adequately supports the College’s aspirations through effective management of current resources, identification and development of new resources, and stewardship that ensures financial stability and growth.

Strategic Pathways

STRATEGIC PATHWAY I: Educational Excellence

We will provide an enriching environment, which assures and sustains academic excellence and professional competency in all academic programs, by enhancing and strengthening the quality of our instructional programs, incrementally growing the size of existing programs, and adding new graduate degree programs.