At a recent departmental leadership meeting, we heard from Scott Hofferber, chief operating officer for Banner – University Medical Group in Tucson, about the Banner “Fast Pass” proposal, which also was mentioned by Dr. Irv Kron, interim dean of the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, at our General Faculty Meeting on Nov. 8.
 
The Fast Pass idea is that our best customers ought to be ourselves, so let’s make it easier for folks who work at Banner and the UA Health Sciences to get appointments at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and South hospitals and clinics.
 
Therefore, starting Jan. 1, all Banner employees (including physicians, nurses, administrators and staff) will be able to schedule a new visit within three days of a request at Banner clinical facilities in Tucson—and no referrals are required for in-system specialist care per a standing practice with Banner Aetna insurance.
 
Details still are being weighed and incorporated into departmental plans under way to improve and expand access-to-care that each of our clinical divisions have been developing. Much of it may hinge on broader clinical support via advanced practice providers (APPs), i.e., nurse practitioners, and medical assistants (MAs), division chiefs noted.
 
Scott (at left) said that efficiency is another crucial element to be incorporated into the above plans and an optimization pilot also will be rolled out that may include some future reconfiguration of clinical space at Banner – University Medicine North.
 
“We want this to be as unobtrusive as possible and completing as much preplanning as we can will benefit that,” he said. “It really fits in with our overall strategy (to grow our market base). For many of the general specialties, we’d be looking to see if APPs would help achieve this goal.”
 
Afterward, a similar three-day access plan would be rolled out for UA employees. Everyone recognizes these are “low-hanging fruit” that will benefit the overall financial bottom line for clinical operations.
 
That bottom line along with an anticipated bump in market share with the new nine-story hospital tower at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson are expected to help turn financials from red to black after the facility opens next spring, said Dr. Kron and Dr. Michael Dake, UA senior vice president for health sciences, at our General Faculty Meeting.
 
UAHS will get back 180,000 square feet of space, Dr. Dake said, once Banner moves clinical operations into the new hospital tower over the next few months. Look for private and public tours and opening ceremonies coming in April. About 200 beds will be maintained in the old hospital wing as part of a transition to allow for capacity adjustments.
 
How to absorb that extra space as well as take advantage of new academic and research facilities coming online in that same timeframe and advances they’ll offer in teaching and investigative methods for the future of health care, is part of the UAHS Strategic Plan, expected to be released in final form in early 2019.
 
Other topics at the faculty meeting included a request for projects by Dr. Rick Schnellmann, dean of the UA College of Pharmacy, to take advantage of rising interest from pharmaceutical companies—four in particular—for fundable research and a presentation by Tech Launch Arizona on how it helps investigators capitalize on innovations developed at the UA.
 
Also in December, look for more detail on the national Fellowship Match—held Nov. 27—regarding how the department’s 17 ACGME-accredited training programs fared and where our graduating residents seeking fellowships will head next year. At this point, we know most internal medicine residents did very well with all seven seeking fellowships from South Campus matching into their top choices and similar results coming at Tucson Campus.
 

Monica Kraft, MD
Robert & Irene Flinn Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson