UTHSC’s new strategic plan aims to improve health for Tennessee | Opinion
Medical student Jon Pat “JP” Ransom is pursuing pediatrics and pediatric oncology research, because his younger sister died of neuroblastoma.
Motivated to help others because of his own experience, he is a stellar example of the caliber of students the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) attracts, educates, and trains to care for the people of Tennessee.
UTHSC has an outstanding record for training Tennessee’s health care workforce and employing clinicians across the state who provide exemplary care for Tennesseans. I am proud to say that we have an even brighter future ahead of us.
Here’s what UHTSC’s strategic plan says
The UT Board of Trustees recently approved our new 2023-2028 Strategic Plan. This blueprint defines UTHSC’s trajectory for the next five years and strengthens our resolve to improve health care and health across Tennessee, which currently ranks 44th in the country for overall health.
Our plan was developed through an inclusive process that spanned more than 18 months with participation from more than 700 faculty, staff, and students across all campuses, as well as alumni and community members.
This plan reflects UTHSC’s commitment to strengthening partnerships in communities across the state; promoting quality interprofessional education; growing research, innovation, and entrepreneurship; expanding quality care; and creating an environment of success for all Tennesseans.
I am excited to introduce our new vision, four simple words: Healthy Tennesseans. Thriving Communities.
Our new streamlined mission statement retains our academic, clinical, research, and outreach focus. It reads: “Transforming lives through collaborative and inclusive education, research/scholarship, clinical care, and public service.”
We are going to make a real difference
Our values mesh with the UT System’s Be One UT Values, which include Bold and Impactful, Embrace Diversity, Optimistic and Visionary, Nimble and Innovative, Excel in All We Do, United and Connected, Transparent and Trusted. Additionally, we have included Health Focused, Science Driven, Caring and Professional.
We believe our 2023-2028 mission, vision, and values set us up to make a real difference for Tennessee.
To understand our future, first let me offer some facts about UTHSC:
With six colleges – Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy – UTHSC is the largest educator of health care professionals across the state.
UTHSC’s faculty and more than 1,400 residents and fellows staff major hospitals in Memphis and across Tennessee.
At our main campus in Memphis, UTHSC enjoys long-standing clinical and educational partnerships with hospitals, including Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Regional One Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Baptist Memorial Healthcare, and St. Francis Hospital, as well as with multiple specialty clinics, physician practice groups, community, and public health programs.
UTHSC also has campuses in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga with clinical and educational partnerships at major hospitals, including Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, and programs at West Tennessee Healthcare–Jackson Madison County Hospital in Jackson.
UTHSC has more than 880 clinical-educational training sites in communities across Tennessee, all supported through strategic partnerships.
We are strengthening our clinical partnerships
The next time you visit your health care provider at any of these hospitals or sites across the state, ask where they were trained. Chances are good the response will be the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Next, ask whether they are faculty or affiliated with UTHSC. Chances are good the response will be yes.
We are already moving to strengthen our statewide clinical partnerships. Our inaugural Vice Chancellor for Strategic Partnerships Paul Wesolowski joined us in May.
We are expanding our clinical reach into rural areas of Tennessee and increasing access to care. The UTHSC Nursing Mobile Health Unit launched in May to bring health care to underserved areas in Lake and Lauderdale counties. The UTHSC College of Dentistry is leading a $53 million state-funded Healthy Smiles Initiative to expand access to dental care across Tennessee.
Our new strategic plan is our roadmap for a better future for the health of Tennessee. With students like JP Ransom; clinicians like Assistant Professor Nathan Summers, MD, an alumnus who returned to Memphis after a fellowship at Emory to care for those with HIV because the need is so great; and researchers like Jim Bailey, M.D., who is testing ways to improve primary care to the uninsured and underinsured, we will fulfill our vision for Healthy Tennesseans: Thriving communities.
Peter Buckley, M.D., is the chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: UTHSC’s new strategic plan aims to improve health for Tennessee
