Strategic Plan Update on Performance: Improving Our Bottom Line with Quality Patient Care

Dear Colleagues,

As we look back on the 2016 fiscal year, we can take stock of the financial performance of our enterprise. In the first two years of the Strategic Plan, we met our performance goals by applying strategies that saved money, reduced waste and standardized protocols.

Our target for the 2016 fiscal year—to improve performance by $98.2 million—proved to be challenging, but we are pleased to report that we also hit that goal. A major factor in achieving our performance goals is the limit on the revenue our Maryland hospitals can receive from reimbursements for the care we provide.

In light of this, it is essential that we continue to enhance clinical value through improvements in quality and cost. We are pulling together teams from across the health system to help advance what we have identified as our "mission imperatives." For each patient, we are focused on determining the best venue for treatment, which could be a hospital, an ambulatory center or even the home. Our ongoing work to fully integrate all of our clinical sites—through Epic, centralized scheduling and other means—is helping us become more streamlined. We also expect to start seeing a return on major capital investments, such as the new Capacity Command Center, which is helping to improve patient access.

As we continue to adapt to changes in health care, we are capturing gains in other areas as well.

For instance, supply chain transformation is saving us millions. We spend about $1.6 billion a year on supplies and services. Through systemwide efforts to combine our purchasing power, we have trimmed $33 million from that line in the last two years. For example, we are centralizing the purchasing of beds, ultrasound machines and other equipment so our hospitals are not buying the same product at different prices. We have chosen Hewlett Packard as the single supplier of all printing equipment and services, where we previously contracted with six different vendors; this consolidation should recoup $2 million a year.

If you have additional suggestions, be sure to email strategicplan@jhmi.edu. If you have not had the opportunity to view the last Johns Hopkins Medicine Town Meeting on the performance strategic priority, held earlier this year, you may do so at your convenience with this link. You can also read articles in The Link e-newsletter about how the performance strategic priority is being implemented.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ronald R. Peterson
President, Johns Hopkins Health System
EVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine