A Message from Robert I. Grossman to the NYU Medical Center Community

June 27, 2007

Dear Members of the NYU Medical Center Community:

I am profoundly honored to be starting my work as the 15th Dean and CEO of NYU Medical Center.  This is an extraordinary institution filled with talented and dedicated people who work together to provide exceptional patient care, produce ground-breaking research and educate future generations of medical professionals.  

In addition to a gifted team of physicians, scientists, nurses, faculty and staff, we also are fortunate to have significant support from New York University, its President, John Sexton, J.D., Ph.D., its Senior Vice President for Health, Robert Berne, Ph.D., and its Board Chair, Martin Lipton, as well as from our own Board of Trustees, led by Chairman Ken Langone.  I am particularly grateful to Dr. Robert M. Glickman, our outgoing Dean and CEO, for his many years of leadership and wisdom and for his help and support over the past few months.  

Since being selected for this position in March, I’ve spoken with many of you throughout the Medical Center – to hear what you think is working well and what we can do better.  What you’ve told me reflects my own experience as a member of the NYU Medical Center community for the last six years: while we have achieved tremendous successes, there is much we can and must do to ensure NYU Medical Center grows as a world-class institution well into the 21st century.

To reach that goal, I am pleased to announce that we are taking critical steps to recombine the NYU School of Medicine and the NYU Hospitals Center into a unified, fully integrated academic medical center – thus recreating the many benefits we enjoyed when the medical school and the hospitals were more closely joined.  Bringing together the superb clinical expertise of the NYU hospitals and the world-class research and educational capabilities of the medical school will enhance our already cutting-edge, high-quality medical education, scientific research and patient care.  This integration will also promote a more collaborative culture – one more responsive to patients, physicians, scientists, nurses and staff – and create a more productive working environment by identifying efficiencies and upgrading facilities and IT systems.  I am confident that this transformation will help NYU Medical Center build on its legacy of greatness in research, education and clinical care – setting the standard for academic medicine for decades to come.

To drive this integration forward, we are appointing a new senior management team.  The members of this team are all well-recognized leaders from within the Medical Center who have exceptional track records of success and deep institutional knowledge.  Their job is to support you and your critically important work – and to help us achieve our ambitious goals.

Significant Benefits of Integration

Integrating the School of Medicine and the Hospitals Center will benefit the entire NYU Medical Center community.  Specifically, this reorganization and integration will:

• Unify our vision and management across research, education and clinical care – Fully integrating our research, education and clinical care will guarantee that strategic planning and development occurs around a clearly articulated shared vision – especially in our key strategic areas of cancer, musculoskeletal diseases, neuroscience, children’s health and cardiovascular disease.

• Create a more patient-centered culture – By integrating cutting-edge research with clinical treatment, and achieving the highest levels of service standards and nursing care, we will improve outcomes and strengthen our patient-centered culture.  Our goal is to create a culture that is even more responsive and respectful of patient needs.  And, our new, more efficient structure will enhance every aspect of the patient experience, from admittance to discharge.

• Promote a more physician-focused environment – We are committed to supporting our physicians by enhancing the entire medical center to better facilitate their practice and be more responsive to their professional needs. By acquiring and implementing state-of-the-art IT, workflow, and communications systems, we will free physicians to focus on what they care about most – providing outstanding patient care.  And, we will give our doctors the best possible physical environment in which to do their work, including completing our plans for a new visionary hospital facility that will define the future of healthcare.

• Encourage “big science” and translational research – Our new structure will better integrate the research and clinical missions of the Medical Center to promote cutting-edge science and patient care.  To oversee this integration, we have created the new position of Senior Vice President and Vice Dean of Science, as well as a new Scientific Steering Committee that will help define a new scientific agenda to maximize the use of our resources.  One of our goals is to improve our research support services to increase our competitiveness for research funding.  We also will incentivize “big science” by encouraging laboratories and researchers to collaborate on multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to fundamental scientific problems.   And, we will provide additional support for translational research – the movement of research “from the bench to the bedside” – benefiting all of our patients. 

• Advance the education and training of physicians/scientists – At the School of Medicine, we must have a 21st century curriculum that fully prepares future physicians/scientists to deliver the highest quality patient care and helps them become leaders in scientific discovery.  Medical students and physicians/scientists must have the best possible interdisciplinary and “real world” training, and learn how they can leverage the vast amount of medical information available to them.  We want to ensure that students and house staff have the finest facilities and information systems for their training.  We also must help prepare them to work together in collaborative teams with nurses, technicians and other medical professionals.

• Strengthen accountability, improve transparency and create organizational efficiencies – By clarifying and streamlining reporting relationships – particularly in areas that cut across the hospitals and the medical school – our new structure will speed decision-making and ensure clearer accountability and transparency.  We also will boost productivity and improve workflow by upgrading information technology throughout the Medical Center and by better using information to measure and improve performance.  Integration also will produce economies of scale by allowing shared systems and services, eliminating duplication and better using space and personnel across our facilities.

Experienced Management Team Will Drive Integration

As part of the reorganization of the NYU Medical Center, we are making a number of management changes that will improve operations and facilitate the integration of the medical school and the hospitals.  Every member of our new management team has an exceptional record of accomplishment as a leader within the Medical Center.  Many have worked together closely for years - including some who have worked with me in transforming radiology at NYU, while also contributing significantly to the broader success of the Medical Center.  I have included with this letter a chart depicting the new organizational and management structure, as well as further background information on the accomplishments of our new leadership team.  That team includes, among others:

• Executive Vice President and Vice Dean, Chief of Staff, Andrew W. Litt, M.D., will work closely with me and the senior leadership team to oversee the management of the Medical Center.  Andy’s primary mission will be to enhance the capabilities of the Medical Center by guiding the process of organizational integration and transformation, and ensuring that operational performance and strategic planning occur around a unified vision.  Since coming to NYU as a medical student in 1979, Andy has devoted his entire professional career to our medical center. In his prior position as the Vice Chair of Financial Affairs in the Department of Radiology, Andy was responsible for the tremendous economic success of the department’s clinical practice, overseeing a tripling of revenues over the last six years and the renovation and expansion of its clinical sites.  Andy also has extensive experience in managed care and health policy both locally and nationally, and he has developed new programs with payors and negotiated all of the department’s managed care contracts over the last decade.  He was also the department’s leader in the negotiation of the Strategic Alliance with Siemens Medical Solutions, a complex, highly successful, relationship that continues to bring substantial value to NYU Medical Center.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Education, Faculty and Academic Affairs, Steven B. Abramson, M.D., will continue to lead efforts to improve our educational programs and develop a new medical school curriculum that provides the best possible education, given the increasing complexity of 21st century medicine. Steve also will continue to have primary responsibility for faculty promotions and tenure decisions.  Steve has served as Vice Dean for Education, Faculty and Academic Affairs at the medical school, during which time he led the Task Force on Curriculum Reform, resulting in the implementation of Curriculum 2001 at the School of Medicine.Steve has experience in both basic science and clinical research in the field of inflammation and arthritis, and was recently named Chair of the newly formed American College of Rheumatology (ACR)-FDA Drug Safety Committee by the ACR Board of Directors.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Chief of Hospital Operations, Bernard A. Birnbaum, M.D., will assume responsibility for improving and fully integrating the operations of all patient care activity at the NYU Hospitals.  With oversight of nursing, ancillary support, perioperative services, and patient throughput, Bernie will integrate overlapping functions, identify potential efficiencies across and within the hospitals and increase both accountability and effective decision-making.  In his prior position as Vice Chairman of Clinical Affairs and Operations in the Department of Radiology, Bernie was responsible for clinical operations and workflow enhancement, faculty recruitment and credentialing, policy development and implementation, quality improvement and compliance, and oversight of the department’s strategic planning initiatives.  Bernie also previously held the position of Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Medical Board of NYU Hospitals Center, actively serving on many patient care, clinical safety and operational steering committees.  In addition, he served as Co-Chair of the Service Standards Campaign and Oversight Committee and as program director and physician leader of NYU Medical Center’s Physician Leadership Development Program.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs and Strategy, Chief Clinical Officer, Andrew W. Brotman, M.D., will assume responsibility for working with all our physicians in order to strengthen clinical care while integrating research and education.  He also will oversee our key strategic clinical areas.  Andy’s other responsibilities will include managing partnerships with Bellevue, Woodhull and other affiliates as they come on line and spearheading strategic business development and managed care for the integrated Medical Center.  Andy, who has been at NYU since 1999, was previously Senior Vice President for Strategic Clinical Initiatives at the Hospitals Center and Vice Dean for Clinical and Hospital Affairs at the Medical School.  In these roles, he strengthened our partnerships with affiliate hospitals, significantly grew our Faculty Group Practice and recruited many physicians.  He has been a key leader in the development and operation of our Clinical Cancer Center.  Andy also was instrumental in leading the development of an infrastructure to manage the clinical enterprise, which has grown significantly in recent years.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for External Affairs,  Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., will oversee the offices of development and communications for the Medical Center, integrating these important functions as he successfully did at the Child Study Center.  With a strong track record in fundraising, he will work closely with me and our Board of Trustees to raise the capital necessary to achieve the Medical Center’s ambitious goals.  Harold will continue to serve as Chair of the Child Study Center and Head of the Nathan Kline Institute.  He will also continue as the Chair and Arnold and Debbie Simon Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  Harold is one of America’s leading child and adolescent psychiatrists.  Since founding the NYU Child Study Center in 1998, Harold has gained extensive experience with fundraising and the national media.  Today, the Child Study Center has an annual operating budget of over $20 million, a research grants portfolio in excess of $46 million and employs 200 faculty members and staff.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Science, Chief Scientific OfficerVivian S. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., will fill this newly created role overseeing the integration of our research and clinical missions to drive the advancement of science and enhance the delivery of care to patients.  Vivian will guide the effort to set scientific agendas, working closely with the newly-created Scientific Steering Committee which will be comprised of leading researchers from throughout the Medical Center.  She will work with fellow researchers to promote multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and she will draw on her experience as a translational researcher to move research “from the bench to the bedside.”  She also will be responsible for expanding our research collaboration with the rest of New York University.  During her five-year tenure as department Vice Chair of Research, Radiology, Vivian oversaw the creation of a research administration and infrastructure that supports research productivity and external funding success through mentorship, seed grants, and fostering of intra- and inter-departmental collaborations.  Under her stewardship, NYU Radiology, which was unranked seven years ago, is now in the top-tier of NIH research funding.
  
• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Real Estate Development and Facilities, Vicki Match Suna, A.I.A, will assume responsibility for all real estate and facilities functions in the Medical Center, working to better integrate the planning, construction and maintenance of our physical facilities and provide a unified strategic space planning and development service.  In her prior position as Senior Vice President for Real Estate & Strategic Capital Initiatives, Vicki was responsible for the Medical Center’s strategic capital planning as well as the real estate portfolio.  She also oversaw development of new facilities including the Clinical High Tech Pavilion, Ambulatory Care Centers, the Immediate Clinical Facilities Plan, the Child Study Center for Excellence and the Musculoskeletal Institute. Vicki, a registered architect who served as a Commissioner on the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission for 15 years, was recently selected by Mayor Bloomberg to serve on the Board of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Chief Information Officer, Paul Conocenti, will retain his current titles and responsibilities for all information technology activities for the Medical Center.  In this role, Paul has already begun the effort to integrate information technology operations for the Hospitals Center and the Medical School, which this reorganization will facilitate.  Paul is a highly experienced information technology executive with more than 30 years of experience in the field.  Prior to becoming CIO of the NYU Medical Center, he was responsible for integrating all information technology system activities for the Mt. Sinai NYU Health System, and subsequently for equitably dividing IT components among the resulting independent entities.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Corporate Chief Financial Officer, Richard R. Crater, will retain his current responsibilities overseeing the financial operations of both the Hospitals Center and the Medical School, while working to fully integrate them.  Richard has already begun laying the foundation for this integration by acquiring sophisticated financial planning software for both the hospitals and the school and by separating the Hospital Center’s finance department from the joint Mt. Sinai NYU Health System, as well as separating their joint debt obligations.  In recent years, Richard also has successfully restructured the debt of the hospitals, secured an upgrade in its rating and substantially reduced the cost of the hospitals’ outstanding debt. 

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, General Counsel, Annette Johnson, J.D., will retain her current titles and responsibilities and will work closely with me and the rest of the team to execute our reorganization.  As our chief legal counsel, Annette has been integrally involved in the corporate and governance changes that will result in the reintegration of the school and the hospitals as an academic medical center.  In addition to her responsibilities for the Medical Center's legal matters, Annette provides leadership to the Office of Audit and Compliance, which was established under her direction, the Institutional Review Board, and the Office of Government Affairs, all of which report to her and which have enjoyed a record of success and growth in service to the organization under her stewardship.

• Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Human Resources (Acting), Nancy Sanchez, will assume responsibility for integrating the Human Resource functions of the Hospitals Center and the Medical School.  In her previous position as Vice President for Total Compensation, Nancy, a 25-year veteran of the NYU Human Resources Department, oversaw compensation, as well as the development of several educational resources on benefits and web-based human resource tools. 

After many years of loyal and valuable service to NYU Medical Center, several senior executives are leaving the organization. At the Hospitals Center, Eric C. Rackow, President of NYU Hospitals Center, and John P. Harney, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NYU Hospitals Center, who have both provided many years of strong leadership, will be pursuing other interests outside the Medical Center. Eric, in addition to improving the Hospitals Center’s profitability, was instrumental in developing the new Cancer Center as well as our cardiac care strategy. As Chief Operating Officer, John spent many years skillfully directing hospital functions to ensure the smooth functioning of day-to-day operations, while also managing labor productivity and budgeting. At the School of Medicine, Kathy Gallagher, Vice Dean for Administration, will also be leaving. Kathy has ably managed administrative functions at the school, including finance, grants and animal facilities. As part of the larger reorganization we’re undertaking, all three of these positions will be eliminated.

There are a number of other important management changes as well. Ira Warm, previously Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Human Resources, will be leaving the Medical Center after having helped to successfully manage the implementation of a new payroll system and benefits process. As mentioned above, Nancy Sanchez will assume this role in an acting capacity. In addition, Robert Press, M.D., Ph.D., will assume the role of Chief Medical Officer, replacing Max Cohen, M.D., who is leaving the organization after helping to reinvigorate quality initiatives and lead improvements to respond to JCAHO and other requests. Bob, a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases & Immunology), is a leader in his field, serving as President of both the Association of Physicians & Surgeons of University and Bellevue Hospitals and the New York Society of Infectious Diseases.

On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees and their many friends and colleagues across the NYU Medical Center, I would like to express our deep appreciation to Eric, John, Kathy, Ira and Max for their many contributions, and wish them the best of luck in the years ahead.

Moving Forward Together

I firmly believe that the ambitious transformation we’re undertaking will benefit the entire NYU Medical Center community.  But it’s going to require us to change the way we operate.  It’s going to depend on all of our continued hard work, focus and support.  It’s going to hinge on open, honest communication.  And it’s also going to take time. 

We are going to need your help to make this undertaking successful and to realize the full potential of this organization.  In the days and weeks and months ahead, I will be meeting with people from across the Medical Center to hear your thoughts about the best way for us to maintain the highest standard of excellence in the coming years.  In fact, tomorrow I’ll begin holding a series of Town Hall meetings at various times and locations so I can talk to you more about our plans for the Medical Center and hear your thoughts and feedback.

I’d like to express my appreciation to John Sexton and Robert Berne, who have been incredibly supportive of these ambitious plans and will be working closely with all of us at the Medical Center to execute them.  Strengthening the Medical Center’s ties with the University is an important part of this transformation.  We will collaborate even more closely with all academic disciplines at the University, from chemistry, biology, neural science and physics, to law, public policy, public health and health sciences.  Bob will be critical to that effort – and to maintaining a strong and well-coordinated working relationship between the University and the Medical Center.  The Boards of Trustees of both New York University and the NYU Medical Center also will be playing a critical role in our efforts, as they always have.  I’d like to thank them for their continuing support, and I look forward to working closely with both Boards as we drive this integration forward. 

Finally, I would like to thank each of you for your incredible energy and commitment, which has made NYU Medical Center one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of academic medicine.  As we continue to work together in this fully integrated organization and this more collaborative culture, I am confident we will make NYU Medical Center the standard-bearer of world-class research, education and patient care in the 21st century.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you and look forward to our common success.

Best regards,

Bob