Inside Duke Medicine

Dzau launches unique, unified planning process for continued success

With Duke Medicine – like all academic health centers – facing increasing economic and environmental challenges in the next few years related to health care reform, NIH budgets and other factors, Chancellor Victor J. Dzau, M.D., has launched an unprecedented, Enterprise-Wide Planning process involving close to 100 faculty and administrators to position the organization for continued success in an uncertain future.

Until now, the planning process within Duke Medicine has primarily occurred in organizational silos, with each major entity – the Schools of Medicine and Nursing, Duke University Health System, and others – developing and deploying its own plan. Enterprise-Wide Planning, for the first time, will forge a fully unified and integrated process in which we plan our future together with transparency and accounting for the strategic interactions between all of our entities.

“I believe this may be the most important planning process that we have ever undertaken across Duke Medicine,” Dzau said. “This process is all about fostering collective decision-making, planning our future together, and thoughtfully identifying priorities while also understanding the tradeoffs these priorities might require, and carefully considering the interdependencies throughout the organization and the opportunities and challenges that come with each potential decision.”

The pillars of the Enterprise-Wide Planning process are four planning committees that will work directly with Dzau over a six-month period. In forming the committees, Dzau consulted extensively with faculty, administrators and senior leaders, as well as with basic and clinical science faculty councils throughout Duke Medicine.

The four planning committees will focus on a corresponding number of priorities:

• Clinical alignment across Duke Medicine.
• Optimization of research.
• Redesign of education.
• Programs of distinction.

The committees represent key stakeholders from each area of the enterprise-wide focus. Each is co-chaired by an administrative and faculty leader, and consists of clinical and basic science department chairs, as well as faculty leaders.

However, Dzau is quick to point out that input from all faculty members in this process is welcomed and viewed as critical to its ultimate success.

In addition, each committee is being assisted by a project team comprising M.D./MBA Duke faculty who will focus on constructing the committee’s data needs and synthesizing the materials. Expert external consultants have been engaged to facilitate the process.

After meeting monthly for six months, the committees will forward their recommendations to Dzau’s executive leadership team for review, with oversight by a subcommittee of the Duke University Health System Board of Directors and university trustees. Final recommendations will be presented to the DUHS board for review and adoption.

“By challenging ourselves through this unique, unified, transformational planning process, we will rise to meet the seen and unforeseen challenges emerging on the health care landscape,” Dzau said. “Our collectively planned responses to those challenges will inform and inspire our strategy for continued success in the future, and will further ensure Duke Medicine’s position as a leader in health care delivery, research and education.”

Faculty members are encouraged to go to the password-protected Enterprise-Wide Planning process intranet site at https://intranet.mc.duke.edu/sites/ent_plan/SitePages/Home.aspx to review a presentation by Dr. Dzau that makes the case for Enterprise-Wide Planning, as well as to read each of the four planning teams’ charges and goals. Most important, the site has an option for providing comments/questions related to the material and this process.