Strategic Priorities

We have prioritized these seven objectives to ensure that we are a high-performance health care organization that meets patient needs and remains competitive in the marketplace. The examples listed below are meant to illustrate one instance—not a comprehensive review—of how we meet these goals. For more examples of how we achieve these priorities, visit BWHPikeNotes.org. As our strategic priorities evolve in fiscal year 2017, read BWH Bulletin for the latest updates.

Scalable Innovation

The remarkable discoveries and innovations at BWHC improve our understanding, prevention and treatment of diseases.

BWH researchers were the first to study the long-term effects of multivitamins, discovering in 2012 that men over 50 who take a daily multivitamin reduce their risk of cancer, but not cardiovascular disease—a finding that affects millions.

Advanced, Expert Care

Patients from around the world seek out the expertise of our highly specialized clinical and research staff, who pioneer medical breakthroughs and provide individualized care.

Launched  as an initiative of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, PrecisionCancerMedicine.org serves as a hub for physicians and patients looking for resources, including clinical trials, to help pinpoint therapeutic agents designed to precisely target and treat an individual’s cancer.

Improve Health

Healing and caring for patients locally and globally means not only treating disease, but also preventing it and improving a patient’s quality of life.

The Center for Community Health and Health Equity works with community partners to reduce health care inequities and increase access to care for vulnerable populations. Our primary care and specialty services enable us to help patients sustain good health and prevent disease.

Timely Access

Our ongoing efforts to optimize operations, productivity and efficiency mean we can help more patients in need of BWHC’s expert care and in their preferred timeline.

Our Epic system helps make scheduling for appointments and procedures easier for patients and families. We also aim to assign patients to a room as quickly as possible and ensure we can rapidly accept direct transfers of patients who need our care.

Exceptional Experience

BWHC is committed to providing patients and families with the best possible care experience—from their first interaction with BWHC to follow-up care they receive after leaving the hospital.

This includes valet services when patients or family members arrive, a seamless registration process, clean inpatient rooms, high-quality meals, compassionate and highly skilled care, among many other elements.

Highest-Quality, Safe Care

Our patients and families deserve the best possible care, which means the right diagnosis and treatment, coordinated communication with care teams, transparency and prevention of harm.

We are improving patient safety by fostering a Just Culture, where staff feel comfortable reporting errors so that we can prevent them from reoccurring. Our Safety Matters initiative encourages transparency and sharing stories about mistakes we made, what we learned from them and the improvements we are making as a result.

Affordability

The effective use of clinical, research and administrative resources and processes helps reduce the cost of care.

As part of a hospital-wide effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency, the BWH Audiovisual Service team began providing furniture moving assistance last year for internal events. The hospital had previously relied on an outside vendor. Using our in-house staff is expected to save the Brigham $60,000 this year.

Areas of Focus: Fiscal Year 2016

These areas of strategic focus position BWHC to achieve the seven objectives outlined above. Included with each description are examples of how we’re bringing these to life. For a full list of objectives, visit BWHPikeNotes.org.

Discovery & Innovation

BWHC will continue to build on our rich legacy as pioneers in patient care and research.

FY ’16 goals: Brigham Building for the Future will be completed this fall on time and on budget. Increase our number of invention disclosures from 200 in 2015 to 210 this year to advance academic, clinical and financial progress.

Leading-Edge Care Redesign

We never stop looking for ways to improve patient care.

FY ’16 goal: Implementing an initiative called “Active Asset Management,” focused on improving the effective utilization of surgical, procedural and inpatient resources; improved transfer of patients; more efficient and supportive discharge processes; and improved referral management and ambulatory access.

Business Development

Sustaining our mission requires an ongoing commitment to revenue growth and financial stability.

FY ’16 goals: Partnering with Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre to construct the island’s first radiation oncology facility. The business development team has also identified opportunities in China to lend Brigham expertise to new health systems there, greatly benefiting both organizations. Locally, we will meet our target of providing primary care for more than 200,000 patients in Greater Boston and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Our Foundation

People, Education, Skills and Capabilities

We seek to attract and retain the best staff, whose talents make our work possible.

FY ’16 goal: Strengthen the newly launched Brigham Education Institute—a central, cross-department organization launched earlier this year to coordinate medical education opportunities for our health care providers and trainees.

Financial Strength

Without a solid financial foundation, our work in carrying out our mission and achieving our vision simply isn’t possible.

FY ’16 goal: Use our existing assets wisely to generate margin and operate within our budget so that we can continue to provide exceptional, leading-edge care, regardless of external challenges.