By Vicki Ritterband, Interim Vital Signs Editor
The MMS has restructured its strategic planning process, with the goal of accomplishing longer-term, broader goals with clear road maps and better accountability through measurement. The new process and its accompanying five-year strategic plan were approved by the House of Delegates at May’s Annual Meeting.
“This is a different approach to strategic planning,” said MMS President Maryanne Bombaugh, MD, MSc, MBA, FACOG, one of the prime movers behind the effort. “Instead of multiple platforms that can change yearly and become additive to ongoing work, the new process will ensure continuity toward the collective achievement of our goals and objectives. This will include periodic assessment to evaluate progress and make changes when and if needed.”
The Plan’s Structure
The strategic plan has within it three broad goals for the next five years: one for people (including our patients), one for physicians, and one for the MMS as an organization. Each of the three goals has measurable objectives and planned strategic initiatives — in essence the road maps — that will be used to accomplish the goals. The new strategic plan has the following three goals:
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All people will achieve optimal health and well-being through patient engagement and improved health literacy, and equal access to timely, comprehensive, affordable, high-quality, integrated health care throughout their lives.
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Physicians will enjoy a satisfying career in medicine that is grounded in high-quality care, intellectual growth, and financial sustainability in an inclusive environment with minimal regulatory burden.
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The MMS will be the most trusted and respected leadership voice in health care, advancing medical knowledge and the medical profession to improve patient care and outcomes, maintaining a sound financial position and a diverse, engaged, and expanding membership.
One critical strategic initiative has already been accomplished through a “yes” vote at the Annual Meeting: the declaration that health, in all its dimensions, including health care, is a human right. It’s a principle that underpins much of what the new strategic plan will work to accomplish, according to Dr. Bombaugh. “If you don’t believe that health, in all its dimensions, is a basic human right, why would we focus our strategic work to address social determinants of health, access to health, health equity, and care coordination? We are the first state medical society in the country to make this declaration,” she said. And by embracing this overarching principle, the MMS can be involved in promoting and advocating for broad opportunities that affect health, when and where needed, she added.
Measuring Progress
The beauty of the new strategic plan is that the objectives are measurable, continued Dr. Bombaugh. “We can see what we have done to make a difference and there will be periodic reporting to the Board of Trustees on how we’re doing. If we’re not meeting our objectives, we’ll ask why and then consider whether we should adjust or pivot and try another approach. Additionally, the metrics will emphasize impact. For example, we will define how we measure success in the work we are doing. If a committee decides an education program will be one of its objectives, what will be the measure of success toward our MMS goals? Will success be measured by the production of an educational program or by a desired number of attendees? Or perhaps by the production of a paper or article that supports our strategic goals? And because the plan is longer range than in the past, the goals and objectives can be more ambitious.”
An Emphasis on Social Determinants of Health
The plan represents a five-month collaboration among the Committee on Strategic Planning, the Board of Trustees, and Medical Society leadership. There was broad consensus among the authors of the plan that addressing the social determinants of health — such as food, transportation, jobs, safety — that impact the health of people where they live, work, and play should be a focus of the MMS strategic work, and that emphasis aligned well with Dr. Bombaugh’s own orientation as an OB-GYN at a community health center on Cape Cod. “There’s a mindset across the MMS that this work is absolutely what we should be doing at this time, and I’m glad, because there isn’t a health care leader who’s more interested in helping to facilitate this work than I am,” she said.
Dr. Bombaugh said a number of factors spurred the re-examination of the strategic planning process, including both her and President-elect David Rosman’s business backgrounds. “We tried to approach this thoughtfully with a lens to the future. The past strategic planning process and design served the MMS very well. However, with the dynamic changes ongoing in health care and publishing it was determined that a new approach to strategic planning would be needed to bring us to the desired future we hope have for the MMS, one that is thriving and promotes sustainability. And we need to be good stewards of our resources — our financial resources and our human resources — now more than ever.”
