UCSF Department of Obstetrics,
Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
Strategic Plan 2012-2017
Assuring Sustained Excellence & Innovation in Women’s Health
Executive Summary
Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health
Family AIDS Care and Education Services
Center for Reproductive Sciences
Center for Research on Human Infertility
Human Embryo and Stem Cell Research Center
Women’s Reproductive Health Research Career Center
Gynecologic Oncology and Dysplasia
Gynecology
Women’s Health Care
Center for Fibroid Care and Research
Lesbian Health & Research Center
Urogynecology
Women’s Continence Research Center
Women’s Options Center
Obstetrics
Maternal Fetal Medicine
Obstetrics
Prenatal Comparative Effectiveness Research Program
Perinatal Diagnostics
Perinatal Genetics
Reproductive Health and the Environment
Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility
Center for Reproductive Health
Fertility Preservation Program
San Francisco General Hospital
Division of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Undergraduate and Graduate OBGYN Medical Education
Women’s Health and HIV
Women’s Health Clinical Research Center
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UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
Strategic Plan 2012–2017 / Executive Summary
Contents
A Message from our Chair ................................................................................................. 3-4
Our Mission, Values and Vision ............................................................................................. 5
Strategic Priority 1: Shared Identity, Decision-Making & Communication ............................... 6
Strategic Priority 2: Faculty and Staff Sustainability ............................................................... 7
Strategic Priority 3: Sustainable Economic Model ................................................................. 8
Strategic Priority 4: Education............................................................................................... 9
Strategic Priority 5: Destination of Choice – Practices & Hospitals ...................................... 10
Strategic Priority 6: Research Enterprise ............................................................................. 11
Strategic Plan Development Committees............................................................................ 12
One of the top five clinical and research departments at UCSF and a leading recipient of
NIH funding, we are five divisions, an organized research unit and educational programs.
• Gynecology
• Gynecologic Oncology
• Maternal-Fetal Medicine
• Reproductive Endocrinology
and Infertility
• San Francisco General
Hospital
• Center for Reproductive
Sciences
• Residency Program
• Clinical Fellowships
• Medical Students
From Our Department Chair
3
A Message from our Chair
Welcome to the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and
Reproductive Sciences 2012–2017 Strategic Plan Executive Summary. This
is the first Strategic Plan our Department has ever had! Our plan to determine
our Department’s direction over the next 5 years and developing strategies
and action plans to get there have been the result of an enormous team
effort, thoughtful reflection, and dedicated time and energy of stakeholders
from across our complex, vibrant and diverse Department. Our efforts began
in 2011 by engaging faculty and staff throughout the Department and with
facilitation by Saxon-Hamilton Consulting.
“I am confident that the mission,
vision and values of our Department will be the guiding principles
of our thoughtful, collaborative
and flexible strategic plan—now
and over the next five years—as
we advance women’s health
worldwide.”
—Linda C. Giudice
Our Planning Group identified six strategic priority areas that will guide our
efforts over the next five years:
• Foster a shared Department identity and develop mechanisms for
Departmental prioritization, decision-making and communication.
• Foster an environment in which faculty and staff thrive.
• Develop and implement a sustainable financial model that supports
the mission and vision of the Department.
• Develop an innovative and sustainable education model.
• Become the destination of choice for clinical care and optimize the
benefits of the move to the new hospitals.
• Create and implement a roadmap for a comprehensive research
enterprise.
We gathered a broad network of Department stakeholders into Working
Groups that developed action plans for each priority area. In Spring 2012, we
held a faculty and staff retreat at which key feedback on these strategic priorities was provided. Committees were organized around the action plans and
began working on their charges in January 2013. The committee members
continue to be actively engaged, meeting regularly, to assure that our goals
will be achieved, as we have identified our strengths and challenges in the
context of unprecedented changes occurring now and likely in the near future
at UCSF, the University of California more broadly, state-wide, and nationally
in academic medicine, health care, research, public policy, and the economy.
This document represents an overview of the first year of our five-year
endeavor. We envision renewing the plan every five years. Key findings of our
plan are presented herein, and the process for implementation and marking
continued on next page
4
From Our Department Chair
milestones is ongoing. We anticipate that over time, our plan will
be flexible to accommodate changing circumstances, and I am
confident that the mission, vision and values of our Department
will be the guiding principles for making the plan a reality now
and in the next five years as the winds of change prevail. Your
interest, engagement, and input are vital to the continued success
of the Department and this process.
I am appreciative of Nancy Milliken and Rebecca Jackson for
having served as “Faculty Champions” and Dixie Horning as
“Staff Champion” during development of the plan, and they have
accepted the charge of overseeing and guiding the planning
and implementation processes moving forward. I would also
like to acknowledge the Planning Group members for their early
work in the process, helping to define our vision, mission and
core values. Our thoughtful and collaborative process could not
have been completed without the cross-divisional commitment
by so many in our Department. We are stronger together as we
advance women’s health worldwide!
Sincerely,
Linda C. Giudice, MD, PhD, MSc
Distinguished Professor and Chair
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology &
Reproductive Sciences
The Robert B. Jaffe MD Endowed Professor
in the Reproductive Sciences
Our Mission, Values & Vision
5
MISSION:
To improve the lives and health of
all women through
• Excellence
• Innovation and leadership in
Patient Care
• Scientific Discovery
• Education
• Advocacy
VISION:
To advance and transform
women’s health through
innovation and discovery
VALUES:
Our guiding principles
and beliefs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Integrity
Respect
Collaboration
Excellence
Compassion
Leadership
Sustainability
Scholarship
• Altruism
•
•
•
•
Diversity
Openness
Fairness
Commitment
to sharing
knowledge
6
Strategic Priority 1: Shared Identity, Decision-Making and Communication
Create a representative Departmental identity sustained by
all in the Department and create an effective
strategic decision-making model.
Strong shared identity derives from common purpose, shared values
and mutual investment in Department-based outcomes. We share pride
in the work we do together to sustain our Department’s leadership in
women’s health clinical care, research, education, mentoring, and health
policy. However, with a Department and institution as large and diverse as
ours and where faculty and staff are physically separated across all five
UCSF campuses in San Francisco, other parts of the Bay Area and globally, maintaining our Department identity and unity is a challenge. Other
challenges include effective communication and timely exchange of ideas,
regarding challenges and solutions to issues that affect us all.
Our Department has robust clinical, research and educational enterprises. Although we are a loose confederacy of clinicians, teachers, researchers, and staff whose individual endeavors are largely supported by clinical revenue, research grants and contracts, state funds, and foundation
awards, some areas have little opportunity for funding, are in transition, or
share services Department-wide. Understanding and communicating our
connectivity in purpose and financially will empower us in achieving our
goals for the greater good of the Department and all who are part of it.
1. We believe a more clearly articulated process for faculty to contribute
ideas and partake in Department decision-making will enhance personal
investment in the Department including the recognition that we are mutual
stakeholders in our individual and collective success. Also, we believe
that better cross-division communication and decision-making will help
foster collaboration, enhance efficiency and promote a sense of unity and
can lead to identifying key issues that will benefit most from inter-division
decision-making or input (e.g., faculty recruitment).
2. The creation and implementation of a formal communications plan will
facilitate Department faculty and staff being current on changes, decisions, accomplishments and other news occurring across Divisions — or
even within their own physically dispersed site.
3. Having financial literacy that supports sharing high-level financial
information is essential as we navigate economic challenges. This should
include a better understanding of the financial underpinnings of
Departmental resources available and costs incurred to support our
nonprofit missions of education and research. Understanding Department
finances with financial transparency will have the added benefit of
highlighting the important work of the Department, fostering a sense of
pride in all our accomplishments.
Selected Milestones
• The Leadership Group and the
Clinical Enterprise Group combine
as the new, expanded “Leadership
Council” with 2 additional at-large
members from the faculty.
• Faculty elects two at-large members
to the Leadership Council for a 1- or
2-year term.
• Add “Leadership Council Report”
as a standing agenda item to faculty
meetings.
• Establish regular meetings for faculty
in each division, including the Center
for Reproductive Sciences, and include a “Leadership Council Report”
as a standing item at each meeting.
• Change faculty meeting format to
enhance interaction, increase
decision-making involvement and
promote understanding and appreciation of activities across divisions.
• Increase options for remote attendance of faculty meetings.
• Institute a formal group decisionmaking process for faculty recruitment.
• Identify other inter-division issues that
will benefit from group decisionmaking.
• Update Department-wide
communications plan and
implement in phases.
Strategic Priority 2: Faculty and Staff Sustainability
Foster an environment where faculty and staff thrive. It is the
people of our Department that make us great.
We currently have outstanding and committed faculty and staff, and
recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest are high priorities for
our Department. Previously conducted surveys of faculty and staff illustrate
that we share a great deal of pride and passion in our Department and in
our work to advance women’s health. As the work environment evolves
and changes, valuing and supporting each other continues to be one of our
Department’s many priorities. Identifying resources within the Department
and across the University for tools and strategies to empower our faculty
and staff and maximize their advancement are important.
A mission-driven workforce is powerful and essential to our success. It
can be sustained by nurturing connection to our mission, while providing
the many practical and personal benefits of working here.
Selected Milestones
• Understand staff and faculty
motivation for being at UCSF to
enhance recruitment and retention.
• Increase faculty and staff diversity,
including retaining current employees
from underrepresented minorities.
• Enhance feedback and evaluation
mechanisms for all faculty and staff
and increase manager training to
ensure meaningful evaluations.
• Improve faculty mentoring and
introduce staff mentorship.
• Compensation commensurate with
performance.
Faculty:
• Develop and implement a faculty
compensation plan that reflects
Department core values including
respect, fairness, openness,
integrity and sustainability.
Staff:
• Identify approaches to maximize
staff advancement within our
Department and institution.
• Create an environment where work/
life balance is valued and facilitated.
• Increase intra-Departmental
communication.
• Enhance Department-wide sense of
community.
7
8
Strategic Priority 3: Sustainable Economic Model
Create a sound, transparent financial model to ensure the
sustainability of programs essential to our mission and
congruent with our values and culture.
Our Department consistently earns high marks in a variety of
metrics, evidence of our success in our mission of improving
the lives and health of all women. The quality of our students,
residents, and fellows; our growing clinical volumes and superior
clinical outcomes; our outstanding quality and safety performance; our rankings in NIH and other research funding awards;
the leadership of our faculty in women’s health and reproductive
science at the campus, state, national, and international arenas
are some examples of our excellence. Maintaining this momentum
amid today’s financial challenges requires a sustainable
economic model that allows us to maximize our revenue and
manage our costs.
Among our specific challenges are declining state funding
combined with rising pension costs; decreased NIH funding
associated with lower salary caps; decreased state contracts and
increased costs of implementing research; clinical competition in
particular with the uncertain landscape of healthcare reform; and
increasing compliance metrics clinically and in research.
Our actual and potential sources of revenue include: research
contracts and grants, state FTEs, clinical revenue, gifts and
endowments, and the potential of patent revenue. The restrictions
on these funds vary depending on their source: clinical and patent
revenue are the most flexible, and research is the most restrictive.
We must find ways to increase the flexible funding to support
programs without adequate revenue streams.
A successful financial model must be built upon the recognition
that some programs generate more funds than others; some can fully
cover their costs, while others cannot. Cross-subsidization, where
services that generate more revenue help support those that
generate less, is a fact of life in our Department and institution.
We believe that those who contribute funding for cross-subsidization are motivated by understanding and valuing what might
be at risk. This is a hallmark of our Departmental history and will
help us adapt to changing economies.
Economic sustainability will take tools, processes, collective
unity, and individual motivation to hold ourselves accountable
for maximizing revenue and implementing efficient, effective
programs.
Milestones
• Promote fiscal literacy and financial
transparency.
• Create graphic models to explain
Department finances.
• Periodically review taxation system/
cross-subsidization to help prioritize,
invest in, and promote disciplined
implementation of strategic decisions.
• Develop dashboards (scoreboards for
meeting revenue and expense targets)
for clinical, research, and education
programs.
• Design and implement incentive system.
• Invest in and grow profitable clinical
programs.
• Enhance philanthropy.
• Manage expenses.
• Review administration to further define
form and function.
Strategic Priority 4: Education
9
Our goal is to develop and implement a sustainable and
innovative model to fulfill our educational mission.
Training the next generation of health care providers and
researchers in all our disciplines is one of the primary pillars
of our mission as a Department in the School of Medicine.
Our educational programs welcome a broad diversity of
learners including medical students, residents, fellows—both
clinical and post-doctoral research—and graduate students.
We teach nurse midwives and students from related disciplines such as nursing,
pharmacy and genetic
counselors. Patient education, internships at multiple
levels and the involvement
of community physicians
in our programs solidify
our educational model.
Our commitment to
teaching is profound. Our
faculty has broad experience as multi-disciplinary
women’s health educators.
We are leaders in the national and international women’s health
educational agenda, whether providing input to nation- al
healthcare reform and its impact on education and training in
medical schools or our women’s global health educational
work in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
We face many challenges in providing excellent education at
our public university, including decreased funding for our
programs and an increase in unfunded mandate including
Regulatory requirements. We meet these challenges by
exploring new funding sources, improving program efficiency,
increasing the integration of education with our clinical care
and research missions and enhancing support for teaching and
mentoring excellence.
Milestones
Inventory:
• Complete a comprehensive inventory and determine which educational activities are mandatory
to our core, which are most innovative, which are
elective and which are funded.
• Prioritize our unfunded educational activities.
• Perform a regular assessment
of education activities.
Funding:
• Issue an annual financial report
of educational funding sources.
• Continue to clarify how 19900
(state) funds are allocated and
distributed.
• Develop alternative funding
sources for educational activities.
Integrating our education, research and clinical care
missions:
• Collaborate with the Clinical Care strategic
planning group to evaluate if/how learners
improve patient care.
• Develop and implement interdisciplinary and
inter-professional educational activities such as
courses.
• Integrate learners in the Center for Reproductive
Sciences and the Graduate Division with other
educational activities in our Department and other
relevant programs.
Fostering innovation & excellence:
• Mentor, develop, support and reward educators
Department-wide.
• Create metrics of value and self-sustaining funding
models for innovative projects and educational
research.
• Better support for creativity and innovation in
education so that our Department continues to
be a national leader in medical education and
reproductive research.
10
Strategic Priority 5: Destination of Choice – Practices and Hospitals
Our objective is to become the preferred provider for
obstetric and gynecologic care for the women of San
Francisco, Northern California and globally.
Our objective is to build upon our outstanding, high quality
clinical care for women and promote broadly our strong local,
regional and national reputation as a center of excellence for
women’s specialty care. To achieve this we have established
The Destination of Choice committee, a standing committee with
diverse representation by senior and junior faculty, Medical Center
and Department administrative leaders, as well as staff from both
UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH), who will focus
on initiatives that will enhance the patient experience of receiving
care in our clinics and hospitals and identify strategies to address
typical organizational obstacles to providing superior customer
service at every patient encounter.
The committee’s efforts will focus on services in outpatient clinics
as well as attention on optimizing the many benefits of our new
facilities at the Women’s Specialty Hospital at Mission Bay and at
SFGH, as we continue our dedication to outstanding and
innovative care and patient safety.
Milestones
• Agree upon service standard
benchmarks for patient access
and satisfaction.
• Address continuity of care challenges
within our system comprised of many
part-time providers – optimize RN, NP
roles.
• Work with the education group to ensure
that residents are involved in patient
satisfaction improvement efforts.
• Increase patient retention within the
Department/UCSF by enhancing crosspractice collaboration and prioritizing
internal referrals.
• Enhance social media/web presence.
• Develop Department-based strategies to
enhance referral relationships with Community-based providers and improve the
referral process into UCSF and SFGH.
Strategic Priority 6: Research Enterprise
Our goal is to create and implement a sustainable,
innovative, and comprehensive research enterprise.
Milestones
• Develop a new model for financing the
research enterprise.
• Adopt a new model for structuring and
organizing research.
• Improve and enrich communication
systems to foster collaboration, support
faculty in obtaining funding and assure
compliance with new and emerging regulatory processes.
Our large, diverse research program ranges from basic
science to translational research, to clinical trials and
healthcare policy, and we are acknowledged leaders and
innovators in all of these arenas. However, our Department and the School of Medicine at large face unprecedented
changes in financial support that demand a new paradigm
for our present and future development. While,
programmatically, our research teams continue to make
important and innovative scientific and health-related
breakthroughs, we are facing pressures of reduced public
and private financial support.
Our NIH U54 Specialized Cooperative Centers
Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research
(SCCPIR) is an excellent example of our commitment to
the multiple programmatic elements of basic scientific
research, translational research, and trainee and junior
faculty mentoring. Our SCCPIR Center brings together
prominent senior Department faculty and stellar junior
faculty to achieve common goals in research and
integrates with a larger SCCPIR network across the U.S.
for advances in reproductive research.
Our roadmap for a sustainable research program support extends to our two stand-alone centers, the Program
on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE)
and the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.
These Centers have self-sustaining support models and
continue to be successful in bench science, translational
science and policy work.
Our research effort must enable continued innovation
of our mid- and senior-level basic and translational
investigators who have the greatest potential to lead
comprehensive research programs. We highly value
evidence-based clinical research, and integration of
basic and clinical science has unprecedented opportunity in
women’s health and reproductive research that warrants
thoughtful and strategic stewardship over the next five
years. We have career development programs to mentor
the next generation of researchers, although national
funding currently restricts this valuable pipeline.
We believe that strong leadership and strategic decisionmaking will be essential to support innovation and sustainability for our comprehensive research enterprise.
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12
Strategic Plan Development Committees
We are a dynamic and talented community of physicians, scientists,
and staff committed to leading the way in women’s health.
Planning Group
James Bair John
Chan, MD Marco
Conti, MD Susan
Fisher, PhD Elena
Gates, MD Dixie
Horning
Heather Huddleston, MD
Margaret Hutchison, CNM, MS
Linda Giudice, MD, PhD
Rebecca Jackson, MD
Deborah Kamali, MD
Brenda Kittredge
Nancy Milliken, MD
Lani Pettersen
Mitchell Rosen, MD
George Sawaya, MD
Jody Steinauer, MD, MAS
Leslee Subak, MD
Mari-Paule Thiet, MD
Tracy Weitz, PhD, MPA
Marya Zlatnik, MD
Strategic Priority 1
Rebecca Jackson, MD, co-lead
Karen Smith McCune, MD, PhD,
co-lead
Brian Auerbach
Diana Greene Foster, PhD
Jennifer Fung, PhD
Deborah Kamali, MD
Jody Steinauer, MD, MAS
Kirsten Thompson
Strategic Priority 2
Elena Gates, MD, co-lead
Judy Young, co-lead
Rana Barar
Deb Cohan, MD
Julie French
Victor Fujimoto, MD
Mindy Goldman, MD
Diana Laird, PhD
Marya Zlatnik, MD
Strategic Priority 3
Jane Meier, co-lead
Nancy Milliken, MD, co-lead
Meg Autry, MD
John Chan, MD
Marco Conti, MD
Brenda Kittredge
Mitchell Rosen, MD
Strategic Priority 4
Lee-may Chen, MD, co-lead
Patricia Robertson, MD, co-lead
Katrina Kimport, PhD
Felicia Lester, MD, MPH
Julie Lindow
Ann McEnhill
Laura Pliska
George Sawaya, MD
Sarah Wilson, MD
A. Musa Zamah, MD, PhD
Strategic Priority 5
James Bair, co-lead
Michael Policar, MD, MPH,
co-lead
Judith Bishop, CNM, MPH
Rachel Galgoul
Heather Huddleston, MD
Margaret Hutchison, CNM,
MS
Alison Jacoby, MD
Sharon Knight, MD
Abner Korn, MD
Mari-Paule Thiet, MD
Strategic Priority 6
Marcelle Cedars, MD,
co-lead
Susan Fisher, PhD, co-lead
Craig Cohen, MD, MPH
Sarah Glass
Vanessa Jacoby, MD, MAS
Miriam Kuppermann, PhD,
MPH
Lani Pettersen Paolo
Rinaudo, MD Leslee
Subak, MD Tracy
Weitz, PhD, MPA
Nam Tran, MD, PhD
Design/Layout/Editorial Support/Photography: Brian Auerbach
Special thank you: Saxon–Hamilton, Nicole Persson, Brenda Kittredge, Sara Mazur, Leslie King, Jill Harrell, Javier Heinz, Hilary Bunlert