Positioning UK to meet future health care demands
Campus Community,
The last five years have been a period of incredible change in health care in our country.
And with UK HealthCare and its outstanding and committed team, we have been fortunate to be a leader in that change in ways that have benefited Kentuckians — from partnering with more providers to ensure the best of care is closer to home for more people to our sustained ranking as the top hospital in the state with specialty areas considered among the best in the country.
But the next five years will bring even more dramatic change, with mergers and consolidations, the necessary push for even better quality and health outcomes, and on our campus, the building and expansion of our existing hospital footprint and specialty services. More than ever, we will need innovative and thoughtful approaches to a landscape that is continually shifting.
It's against that backdrop that Dr. Mark Newman and I have been discussing in recent weeks the future of health care for our institution and the Commonwealth. I have asked Dr. Mark Newman — and he has agreed — to take on a new role, serving as University Advisor for Health Care Innovation and Growth.
Dr. Newman will serve as EVPHA until the end of this calendar year and then transition to this new role. I will announce plans for acting leadership in UK HealthCare in the coming days and will follow up soon with how we will proceed in searching for the next EVPHA.
The idea behind this new leadership position is to better understand — and position the university and UK HealthCare ahead of — the trends shaping health care. That can be done better away from the day-to-day demands of managing an enterprise.
Under Dr. Newman’s leadership, we have been the state’s No. 1 hospital for seven years running, with Markey Cancer Center now in the top 50 nationally.
In addition to the rankings that signify outstanding commitment and quality, Dr. Newman’s five years as EVPHA have been marked by the largest transaction in our institution’s history: On December 1, King’s Daughter’s Medical Center will join the UK family, extending the reach of our care throughout eastern Kentucky as well as into Ohio and West Virginia.
In the last two years, we have embarked on other successful collaborations as well. We now oversee cancer care at the Lexington Clinic and outpatient services at Cardinal Hill Hospital. We also have engaged in an important joint venture with the Lexington Surgery Center.
We must be on the leading edge of the next set of developments and innovations, not catch up to them. No one is better positioned to help us manage and lead in these spaces than Mark Newman.
I am excited about the future for UK HealthCare. And that means I’m excited about the future of our mission to advance Kentucky in everything that we do. I know you will join me in thanking Dr. Newman for his leadership and service for the past five years and for what he will continue to do on behalf of our health care enterprise and our Commonwealth.
Original source can be found here.
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