October 2019
True North Newsletter

Monthly highlights of our improvement activities
Achieving our True North
What is "True North" and why is it important? Please read here to learn more. Our True North scorecard continues to serve as one lens into our organizational priorities and performance. We will use this month's scorecard to share what's new in FY20.
What's new visually on the FY20 scorecard?

We've made a few enhancements based on feedback from different focus groups and committees. The key changes are greater consistency across the pillars in how data is shared and benchmarked against goals, and clearer explanation of the trend lines (we hope). The more detailed “page 2” that provides more granularity to our patient experience and harm metrics will be unveiled next month. We continue to highlight the organizational IAP goals, as a subset of our True North goals, that remain focused on improving patient experience, reducing harm events, and optimizing our financial strength. 
What metrics are new (or changed) on the FY20 scorecard? 

Over the past couple months, our improvement teams were asked to reflect on our current True North metrics and related improvement work. The goal was to assure we're still focused on the right metrics. This follows the adage "you focus on what you measure"--so let's make sure we're focusing on the right things. A couple highlights of the changes that we’ll expand upon in future newsletters:

  1. Patient Experience: the principles of the goals are the same (e.g., % of areas improving), but the goal better accounts for areas that are able to sustain outstanding performance as well. There is also an added visual showing performance compared to last year across certain groupings.
  2. Ambulatory Quality & Healthcare Equity: we’ve focused this year’s goals on 5 population health-oriented metrics that are also a focus of all 5 UC Medical Centers. You’ll note that we already perform very well on most of them. At UCSF Health, we’re also choosing to view these metrics through an equity lens to understand whether we have disparities to eliminate. See more about our Health Equity efforts below.
  3. Financial Strength: we’ve shifted focus from cost per case (confounded by many elements outside of direct control) and moved towards EBIDA, which means Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation and Amortization. You’ll note the specific EBIDA-oriented metrics that we’ll discuss further in the future. In short, the EBIDA margin is a strong representation of our ability to provide patient care efficiently, and how we manage our core income and expenses on a daily basis.
  4. Learning Health System: new metrics will be populated with current data next month. Stay tuned for further explanation around them. 

Finally, you’ll note a lot of GREEN on this scorecard, which is unusual for this early in the year. We hope the summer months are a trend for the year ahead!
News and Announcements
Recap from the 4 th Annual UCSF Health Improvement Retreat
On September 20th, we hosted our annual leadership retreat where we focused on Cultivating Inclusive Leaders . Our day started with compelling stories of why this is problem at UCSF Health, data from our Gallup and Net Promoter Scores that reinforced the problem, and then an inspiring panel that brought additional stories to life. This led to engaging table discussions that helped inform the UCSF Health “Our People” pillar strategy for how we build more inclusive leaders towards a more inclusive environment. Word cloud above captures the common phrases used during the problem-solving activity. The day ended with a workshop focused on skill-building around inclusive leader behaviors. 
Annual Improvement Report for UCSF Health
For the 3rd year, we’ve generated our Annual Performance Improvement Summary report. It’s an attempt to provide representative examples (it’s hardly comprehensive) of the “how” behind our True North metrics from 2018-19. We hope you’ll enjoy reviewing the work and similarly reflect on initiatives that made the biggest impact in your own areas the past year.
Health Equity Report for UCSF Health
For the first time, we’re formally publishing a Health Equity report. The purpose is to reinforce the “why” behind health equity, share accomplishments of the past year from our Health Equity Council and collaborating teams, and highlight examples of our approach to examining and addressing performance metrics through an equity lens. The report signifies a commitment to openly and systematically assess equity in our care delivery system. We’ll highlight additional work from this area in future newsletters. 
UCSF Health Learning Health System Coaches Announced
A second cohort of Learning Health System Coaches was announced and it includes 15 interprofessional faculty that will participate. Please see the full list here. The program is designed to increase the number of faculty who are both trained and can teach Lean improvement principles, with a goal to enhance the impact of our learners and leaders in helping us achieve True North goals. 
Looking for information from a past True North Newsletter? Please access them here .