The Healthcare Transformation Project extends Cornell University's commitment to public engagement by addressing the quality and cost of healthcare in our country, which are among the great and ongoing challenges of our time. The project's teaching, research and technical assistance are making a difference in New York State and beyond.
David J. Skorton
Cornell University President
The Healthcare Transformation Project was established in 1997 to assist union and management healthcare leaders create integrated delivery systems to improve patient care and reduce costs, and it was committed to working with leaders to help them prepare and implement best practices for redesigning their current delivery systems and to establish patient-centered care delivery systems which result in increased quality patient outcomes, employee engagement and job satisfaction while simultaneously creating a more efficient work environment.
The basis of our methods was a direct result of successes and learnings from over a decade of labor-management work in the manufacturing sector in the 1980s. The involvement of front-line staff, senior and middle management and union leaders in breakthrough activities to create "new knowledge" was essential for radical delivery system changes and organizational redesign.
This pioneering work was based on:
- extensive front-line staff engagement
- encouraging labor and management leaders to work proactively together to create and sustain new critical systems and processes to improve clinical outcomes, and
- refocusing labor relations to foster and support delivery system changes in additional to traditional union activities
The project was ended in 2015.