Dean presents vision at first town hall

10/9 Town Hall Meeting Video:
Apreso / WMV

Speaking before a packed audience at his first Town Hall meeting Oct. 9, Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo offered his vision for the Medical School and let listeners know that their input and involvement is essential.

"I did not train for this job as dean, and it is not a one-person job. You are all players in this vision of excellence, and we need to work together to be a strong team," he said. "The Dean's Office doors are always open to you, and I want to hear from you."

The dean stressed that internal communication is essential for the health of the Medical School, and that if his door is open – all office doors, from chairs, chiefs, senior administrators, and others must be open to facilitate open communication.

Dean Colasurdo presented what he called a preliminary vision for the school, saying that it is too soon for him to define a long-term vision – having been dean for only one month. Areas of the vision include creating a culture of excellence that involves everyone; growing clinical services – but not at the expense of quality; pursuing best practices in the educational arenas; strengthening our affiliation with Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center and the Harris County Hospital District; and growing research.

With reaching more than $1 billion in net assets health science center-wide for the first time – a landmark achievement – the Medical School is poised to strengthen its financial outlook, Dean Colasurdo said.

"We have the people, the vision, and environment to be among the best – all we have to do is do it," he said.

Dean Colasurdo then took questions from the audience, which ranged from space planning in the Replacement Research Facility – some existing faculty will be moved in with space to recruit new faculty; to the Recreation Center – there are no plans to re-open one in the Medical School.

Dean Colasurdo also talked about an increased effort to communicate about the Medical School to external audiences and the department chairs' role in both communication and retaining our current faculty. There also was a question regarding performance evaluations, and Dean Colasurdo said that goals and expectations must be set for staff and faculty upon employment and then assessed periodically – that is owed to all Medical School employees.

The relative value unit (RVU) system sparked several questions, and that issue is being addressed both by the Faculty Senate and by a group headed up by Dr. Patricia Butler, associate dean for educational programs, he said.

"The RVU methodology has value, but there are non-RVU generating activities that the school absolutely needs. I do not have the chairs' eyes, and I need their input," he said.

The last question was about faculty compensation and was posed by a faculty member who said he was billing and seeing patients at the expected levels yet he was costing his department $80,000 a year. He asked how the dean would fix this clinical department problem.

Dean Colasurdo said that the productive faculty cannot be penalized for variables that they do not control, such as billing efficiency, and that individual issues must be brought before the department chairs for solution. "We, the school, will take ownership of this process and provide structure and resources to optimize the management operations, including billing," Dr. Colasurdo said.

-D. Brown