Expanding Curriculum at an Integrated Health System

The client is an integrated healthcare delivery system formed in the 1990s in a Northeastern industrial city. The original hospital was founded to serve the indigent in the nineteenth century, and is now a 550-bed facility that is the core teaching hospital for a major state medical school.

The Challenge:

This system asked us to assess the feasibility of expanding its medical school curriculum from a two-year teaching campus to a full four-year program.

The Solution:

We performed an extensive analysis, culminating in a three-part feasibility study that supported the four-year medical program. Based on our study, the governing boards involved approved the plan, committed initial funding, and developed specific project steps to implement it. The program was also able to gain support and funding from the state.

To prepare for the transition, the campus underwent a major capital expansion, including new patient, academic, and clinical research facilities. The preparation also required developing the four-year curriculum, launching a LCME process, and facility planning.

Based on our initial work, the clinical faculty leadership brought us in again to examine how well its existing academic department and clinical practice structures would support the new clinical programs and academic strategies and to recommend options for change.

The Impact:

Executives and physician leaders at this client have since:

• Developed a vision for the school
• Aligned its curriculum accordingly
• Mapped out in detail the faculty, facility, technology, financial, operational, and infrastructure requirements necessary to sustain it