Introducing the OSF Clinical Agenda
It’s a simple principle: The bigger the machine, the more energy and effort it takes to turn the
gears.
It’s no different for organizations, and we experience it here at OSF HealthCare. We’re a large
organization, growing larger. It’s more important than ever that we are coordinated, connected
and able to meet new challenges as swiftly as they come at us. But turning all those gears,
steering a ship this large in a new direction, just doesn’t happen quickly.
If we want to have the agility to keep pace with the speed of health care, we need to be doing
some things differently. That doesn’t mean another committee. It doesn’t mean another layer.
And it doesn’t mean another project.
It means a Clinical Agenda for OSF HealthCare – an exciting way for us to come together as
One OSF committed to fulfilling our promise to patients of providing superior clinical outcomes
and avoiding all preventable harm.
A Clinical Agenda is a statement of our priorities that we can concentrate our efforts on with
focus and coordination, and in support of our strategic priorities. Instead of four hospitals doing
four projects to reduce sepsis, for example, we may have four hospitals each taking a different
piece of that project and working together. Instead of four solutions, we will have one solution,
and it will be implemented throughout the Ministry in a coordinated fashion.
Development of the Clinical Agenda also means streamlining our clinical decision-making
structure, so those solutions we find can be implemented quickly. We are blessed in this
organization with a tremendous number of clinicians who want to participate in work to improve
our outcomes for those we serve. So often, however, that great work is never widely shared, or
doesn’t make its way through our many processes of approval for implementation. We need a
structure that maintains input from all of our entities but allows us to move to implement
solutions efficiently. We need a structure with clear roles, responsibilities, accountabilities and
decision-making rights. That’s how we can leverage success from the Clinical Agenda soon,
rather than years down the road.
There’s much more to share, and this is only the beginning of the conversation around it. It needs
to be honest and open conversation, because that’s core to the establishment of the Clinical
Agenda. It requires us to take an honest look at our opportunities and then work together to
improve them so we can deliver consistently excellent patient care with every patient.
The business leaders for this effort are:
 Kathleen Forbes, MD, Chief Clinical Officer, OSF Healthcare System
 Lori Wiegand, DNP, Chief Nursing Officer, OSF Healthcare System
 Stephen Hippler, MD, Senior Vice President of Clinical Excellence, OSF Healthcare
System
Questions, concerns or ideas: ClinicalAgenda@osfhealthcare.org