Announcing New Systemwide Travel Program

To employees of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System Corporation, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Suburban Hospital, Johns Hopkins HealthCare, Johns Hopkins Home Care Group and Johns Hopkins Community Physicians

Dear Colleagues,

Travel is an integral part of our operations at Johns Hopkins. As domestic and international travel on behalf of Johns Hopkins has increased, we have sought ways to improve our employees' travel experience, streamline travel management and reduce travel-related costs systemwide. One way we have achieved this is by centralizing travel management services for the health system.

Effective Jan. 16, 2017, Johns Hopkins Medicine will join The Johns Hopkins University in working exclusively with World Travel Inc. (WTI) for travel-related services, including transportation, lodging, car rentals, etc. As our preferred travel vendor, WTI must be used to book all employee business travel. Travel arrangements and expenses associated with conferences, special meetings or speaking engagements that require the use of a specific travel agent will continue to be handled and reimbursed, as they have in the past.

By consolidating travel management for the health system, we will increase our purchasing power and secure lower rates. WTI has been the travel agency for The Johns Hopkins University since 2014 and has helped it save approximately $1.9 million since January 2015.

WTI and Concur, WTI's online booking portal, offer many benefits, including a lowest-fare guarantee, pre-negotiated discounts for business and personal travel, user-friendly portal functionality, and 24/7 customer support. Employees are able to choose from a variety of airlines, hotels and car rental agencies, and they'll be able to use any frequent flyer miles or points already earned through their favorite travel providers.

Improved safety is another advantage of the new travel program. WTI maintains a record of the travel itinerary of all employees who have booked travel through the program. Those employees enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing that should an emergency occur during their travel, WTI will notify Johns Hopkins of employees' whereabouts, reach out to verify their status and provide any assistance. For travel to remote locations, WTI is supported by a network of 3,300 expert agents in 80 countries.

Employee participation makes all the difference. We save on costs by reaching booking goals that we've negotiated with preferred suppliers. For example, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have increased their discounts for Johns Hopkins—Southwest by 3 percent, and United by 5 to 25 percent—because we reached agreed-upon booking goals. To help us meet these targets with preferred suppliers in the program and realize similar cost savings, we encourage you to use WTI for your personal travel needs in addition to business travel.

To help travelers and travel arrangers understand how the new program works, training will be offered that includes portal navigation, traveler profile management, travel booking, central billing procedures, credit card management, and group and meeting services. Send inquires to jhtravel@jhu.edu to learn more about available training or to schedule a session.

I encourage you to join your colleagues in benefiting from WTI's enhanced services, safety measures and pricing, and supporting our goal to improve travel services across the health system. For more information, please see the attached commonly asked questions or visit travel.jhu.edu. If you have an urgent travel need and require assistance with arrangements, please contact WTI directly at 888-433-2556.

Sincerely,

Mike Larson
SVP, Finance and CFO
Johns Hopkins Health System