Jargon of Medical Enterprises.

Vice President, Performance Excellence - Mid Atlantic Region

Executive Management

The institution from which I retired and regard with great fondness posted a recruiting ad which came to me passively via Facebook as a subscriber to the organization's postings.  I clicked the bold print title which took me to the parent institution's Job Opportunities.  The job expectations and requirements took about half a page.  Even though I have forty years experience with patient care and I thought a good grasp of when we excel and when we fall short, apparently Excellence that we strive for could use a task master to achieve.  And all this time at all the Physicians Network quarterly meetings they made me attend lest I forfeit my achievement bonus, they told us collectively what a great group of physicians we were.  And I think the conveyed assessment was correct, there are no grander, more dedicated and reasonably knowledgeable group of medical school graduates that I have encountered.  But apparently we still underperform, or do we?

So here's the description, with the organization's identity omitted, with the assumption that this could be anyplace in contemporary consolidated medicine.


The Regional Vice President, Performance Excellence will assist the Chief Executive Officer and Regional Leadership Team in change management, process improvement, lean implementation, Operational Excellence Improvement (OEI) and Transforming Operations (TO).
The Regional Vice President Performance Excellence has accountability for the oversight of performance improvement activities within <identity omitted> and will lead the organization's implementation of a lean management and production system. This role will assist senior leaders in the strategic deployment that propels <identity omitted> to top tier operational performance. The Regional Vice President Performance Excellence will support operational leaders and clinical units in the development of high performance operating plans and efficient deployment of resources. The individual who holds this position will exemplify the <identity omitted> mission, vision and values and acts in accordance with policies and procedures.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
? Master's Degree in Systems Management or Business Administration with a minimum of five years' experience in complex industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, etc.
? Leads the development of performance improvement plans and collaborates with departmental leadership to develop operational goals linked to the performance improvement plans
? Fosters a culture of shared ownership for outcomes-driven improvement.
? Provides leadership for design and implementation of an effective and ongoing program to monitor, evaluate and improve the financial performance, efficiency and growth initiatives for the region
? Provides leadership for the system performance improvement program, including performance management and improvement training and operational excellence initiatives
? Creates a system-wide "lean" and/or other process improvement culture and is dedicated to coaching and driving operational efficiencies.
? Partners with clinical and non-clinical leadership across the enterprise to identify opportunities for greater organizational efficiency and process improvement
? Drives lean improvement initiatives in concert with leadership partners including initiatives related to waste and/or cost reduction.
? Establishes national benchmarking standards to improve operations by identifying best practice methodologies from within healthcare and other high performance industries.
? Integrates innovation into the redesign of systems and processes to ensure optimal outcomes and value
? Serves as a member of various organizational work groups, committees and teams to include serving as a member of the Regional Leadership Team
? Serves as a change agent and champion to drive organizational transformation in alignment with strategy and vision

 Now I am a college graduate with a solid if not spectacular verbal SAT score who endured many a class that required composition directed at making me proficient at expressing myself in an understandable way.  There is not a single word in this description that I do not understand as vocabulary..  About half the phrases I do not understand are those otherwise familiar words are strung together in sequence.  Could use a little help here, either from other experienced though likely younger doctors or maybe from people who thing they are qualified to pursue this opportunity, which I suspect pays more than they paid me.  My gestalt, shaded by modern experience, is that this is the update of what 1970's era physicians were taught as Buff & Turf.  Make the patient seem healthier than they really are, or in this case create the illusion that the doctors were more effective than they really were.  Oh, and do it with fewer doctors and nurses.

Did I come close?

Too many analysts and overseers, not enough value to those of us who contact the patients skin to skin, or even blue vinyl to skin.

They're Mostly Gone

It had been a while since visiting the medical center from which I retired, maybe about six months when I attended a Grand Rounds there.  This time I dropped off school supplies purchased a little at a time at Back to School Sales over maybe twenty years.  As I organized My Space, loose leaf paper and binders at that volume would be classified as clutter.  The Sisters, though, collect stuff like this for the school children of the neighborhood so I transported a few boxes of this stuff to her.  The environment looked the same, not especially active but with enough people inside the building to require me to park on the garage's roof.  My old office had nothing going on other than a new neurologist joining in the previous month and one of the Medical Assistants nearing the completion of her pregnancy.  I learned that the hospital's CEO would be retiring soon and sent her a mixed congratulatory and thanks note when I returned home.

Recently the administrative alignment of the network subsidiaries had changed, an initiative of headquarters a few hundred miles away.  My guess is that it would make no difference to operations, as it is not the first shuffling, none of which have dripped down to the level of patient care.  However, among Physicians Network, the two head honchos had been figuratively beheaded.  Looking back, we've had several CEO's, Exec VP's, Chief Medical Officers for the network.  They seem to arrive as a group and mostly depart as a group, often suddenly enough to suggest the exit was not a voluntary one.  I suppose the salaries they pay are rather good but the duration of the salary not very long.  Moreover, nearly all who depart suddenly are at mid-career, or at least well short of customary retirement age.  I have no idea what type of Golden Parachutes are in their contracts but it would seem prudent to ask for one given the predictably short tenure.

The clinicians seem much more secure.  Since my exit, one hospitalist moved on, one orthopedist concluded his contract, and two more clinicians came aboard.  Perhaps we protest about the management more than we need to.  Time is on the side of the clinicians.