magine trying to operate a $300 million corporation with a board of nearly 50 members having to sign off on all decisions. Or being a patient of Emory, a vendor, or third-party payer and running into different policies and procedures, depending on which side of Clifton Road you're on. It could be enough to drive you . . . somewhere else. And it was good reason to legally and financially move The Emory Clinic under the Emory Healthcare umbrella and to give the clinic a new governance structure. Today, The Emory Clinic is officially an operating company of Emory Healthcare, just like Emory University Hospital, Crawford Long Hospital, and the Emory Children's Center. The Clifton Road components of Wesley Woods are also expected to join the family this spring if a proposed merger is approved. Clinic members earlier this year voted overwhelmingly in favor of the changes. They bring Emory Healthcare a step closer to fulfilling our strategic plan to consolidate as the city's largest and most comprehensive provider of health care services. Changing the independent nonprofit corporation of The Emory Clinic into a core nonprofit corporate unit within Emory Healthcare fully integrates all planning and budgeting, further enhancing Emory Healthcare's flexibility and its ability to function as one unit. The Emory Clinic will also have access to the resources of Emory Healthcare so that it can more easily meet the challenges of building new programs and new operational systems. Also under the newly approved plan, The Emory Clinic will be governed by a smaller board of directors (nine members) than in the past. As CEO (formerly director) of the clinic, Rein Saral will chair the board, which will consist of Michael M.E. Johns, director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and CEO of Emory Healthcare; three trustees appointed by the Emory Healthcare board; two section heads of the clinic appointed by Johns; and two physician members-at-large elected by the physician senior members of The Emory Clinic.

A Leadership Council, consisting of all 28 section heads and 12 other physicians elected by physician senior members of The Emory Clinic, will work with the clinic CEO to enhance service, quality, efficiency, and financial integrity. In addition, a CEO Advisory Committee, consisting of 12 non-section head physicians with three to ten years of clinic tenure, will help identify operational issues and provide suggestions for improvements. In the letter to clinic members before the vote, Johns reminded faculty that the strategic plan "revolves around the ability of our individual 'operating companies,' especially the clinic, to build the teamwork, camaraderie, and operational processes that every one of us (and our patients) will be proud and happy to be part of. Our goal for Emory Healthcare is nothing less than to be the provider of choice for the full spectrum of health care services in Atlanta and the region." The bottom line? Besides being a vote of confidence in our clinical strategic plan on which hundreds of faculty and staff worked, the clinic's new status will help keep Emory competitive with other health care providers in our region. And it will help insure that we preserve and strengthen our missions in research and education. For details of the vote, see the January 21 issue of Momentum Update, the weekly e-mail archived on the Momentum Web (available only to users accessing the Internet via the Emory networks).

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