March 2019
What is "True North" and why is it important? Please read here to learn more.
Achieving Our True North
Please review our  current True North scorecard that continues to serve as one lens into our organizational priorities and performance. This month's communication focuses on our ambulatory access.
How are we approaching the complex problem of ambulatory access?
UCSF Health continues to be challenged in meeting the demand of patients seeking our care. There are many barriers involved and our increasingly competitive healthcare market makes the problem more visible each day. The attached presentation provides a nice overview of the problem, our current state, a root cause analysis reflected in a fishbone diagram (see figure below), and a series of tactical next steps. The latter are focused on both increasing supply (e.g., maximizing productivity, space, and new recruitments) and right-sizing demand (e.g., strategic partnerships, reciprocal referrals, and digital health solutions). This is the work behind our singular access metric on the TN scorecard.
News & Announcements
International Women's Day
International Women's Day (March 8th) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The first such celebration occurred more than 100 years ago. UCSF is planning a wonderful series of events to further celebrate , inspire and empower our incredible women. All faculty and staff are invited to participate. If you haven't seen it, you should also check out the new UCSF Women in Science website , which is full of inspiring stories.
Announcing New Medical Directors
UCSF Health continues to support physicians through formal medical directorships to lead and support important operations and functions throughout the delivery system. In these critical roles, physician leaders partner with health system leaders to run clinical services (e.g., ambulatory, inpatient, affiliates/partners, and/or across the continuum) and lead functional areas (e.g., informatics, population health, quality/safety). We wanted to share the most recent medical directorships with brief bios captured here .
UCSF Lean Champions Recognized
Please join us in congratulating Andy Gross (Rheumatology), Jonathan Lee (DGIM), Linda Liu (Anesthesia) and Kendall Nash (Pediatric Neurology) as our newest Learning Health System (LHS) Coaches who have successfully earned this recognition. Lean teach back is the cumulation of UCSF Health’s most intensive Lean training program, and is a core requirement for LHS Coach Certification. Each of these physician leaders are now prepared to co-lead training workshops with our teams and trainees. They are leading the way in role modeling a partnership for supporting and coaching improvement efforts.
National Doctors' Day
Did you know?  National Doctors' Day is celebrated to recognize physicians, their work and their contributions to society. The date was chosen to commemorate the first use of general anesthesia in surgery on March 30, 1842. In 1990, National Doctors' Day was designated by Congress and President Bush as a national holiday. At UCSF Health, we will recognize our wonderful physician workforce on March 28th to avoid conflict with the campus holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez Day.
Schwartz Rounds
This month's Schwartz Rounds will take place on March 12th, 12-1 p.m. at Parnassus, HSW-301, and will feature " Unanticipated Outcomes: The Trainee Perspective " ; as with other Schwartz Rounds, the goal is to foster an open discussion about the emotional impact of caring for patients. Please see the flyer for additional details.
4th Annual UCSF Health Improvement Poster Symposium

Call for Poster Submissions:
Share Your Improvement Work!
Thursday, May 30th from 4-7p at Mission Bay Conference Center
Electronic Poster Submission Due on May 16th
Looking for information from a past True North Newsletter? Please access them  here.