N. ROSSON1, H. HASSOUN1 1Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine,Baltimore, MD, USA
Introduction:
Historically, global collaborations involving US academic medical centers (AMCs) focused on specific diseases and public health issues in less developed countries. Recently, rapid privatization of healthcare systems, economic development, and a shift in the disease burden have led providers in emerging countries to seek partnerships with AMCs with hopes of improving care to its citizens. This new paradigm is termed Global Collaborative Healthcare, and since 1999 Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) has been at its forefront, facilitating global expansion of the Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) mission. We investigated the resource requirements for surgical specialty subject matter expertise (SME) to support the JHI operating model.
Methods:
The size and scope of JHI’s engagements have increased from consulting to projects of greater complexity and resource requirements, such as affiliations, hospital management and joint ventures, with past engagements in over 50 countries and currently 18 active projects in 16 countries. JHI engages a range of SMEs from the entities that comprise JHM and to facilitate and monitor the use resources, JHI develops work orders that define the terms and services provided which are retained in a JHI database. Data was extracted from this database on a query for all work completed in a 3 year period (Jan, 2013-Dec, 2015), sorted and analyzed to determine total utilization (hours and full time equivalent (FTE) and clinical and non-clinical areas of expertise. Using the American College of Surgeons definition, 14 surgical specialties were reviewed. For purposes of this analysis, 1 FTE = 2,080 hours.
Results:
JHI utilized on average at 21,940 hours annually, or 10.55 FTEs for all faculty and staff SMEs. The surgical specialties had an average annual utilization of 4,0933 hours or 1.97 FTEs. Within the surgical specialties, Thoracic and General Surgery had the highest utilization, with an annual average 673.49 hours and 605.82 hours respectively followed by Urology and Vascular with 581.86 hours and 427.81 hours respectively. Please refer to Table 1 for the totals and trends in utilization.
Conclusion:
The global healthcare market is massive and expanding, providing a platform for leading AMCs to enter into collaborative partnerships with healthcare organizations around the world. In evaluation of the JHI model, we found that surgical specialties play a significant role, providing surgical departments a unique opportunity to successfully engage in these collaborations while continuing to fulfill their core mission and revenue streams.